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I 


BY  THE   SAME  AUTHOR. 


HOMES, 

AND 

HoiT  to  Make  Them  ;  or,  Hints  on  Locating  and  Building 
a  House. 

ILLUSTRATED  HOMES, 

Describing  Real  Houses  and  Real  People. 

Each  in  one  volume.     Square  i6mo.     Beautifully  illustrated 
and  bound.    Price,  each,  $  1.50. 


"There  is  hardly  a  matter  connected  wth  the  work  of  building  a 
'  home,'  which  is  not  treated  of  wisely  and  well,  from  the  choice  of  a  site 
or  the  adaptation  of  a  building-  to  a  Site,  through  all  the  stashes,  from  the 
drains  and  foundation-walls  to  the  modest  completed  buildrng", — strong, 
but  beautiful ;  tasteful,  but  not  merely  ornamental  :  a  little  earthly  para- 
dise, but  yet  not  too  grand  for  ev  ery-day  enjoyment  or  use."  —  Christian 
Intelligencer. 


%•  For  sale  by  Booksellers.  Sent,  post-paid,  on  receipt  0/ price  by  the 
Publishers, 

JAMES  R.  OSGOOD  &  CO.,  Boston. 


A  CALM  OUTLOOK. 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


BY 

E.  C.  GARDNER, 

author  of 

"homes,  and  how  to  make  them,"  "illustrated  homes," 

ETC. 


BOSTON: 
JAMES  R.  OSGOOD  AND  COMPANY, 
Late  Ticknor  &  Fields,  and  Fields,  Osgood,  &  Co. 
1878. 


Copyright,  1878. 
By  JAMES  R.  OSGOOD  &  CO. 


All  rights  reserved. 


University  Press:  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co., 
Cambridge. 


PREFACE. 

HAVE  not  attempted  in  these  pages  to 
indicate  a  royal  road  to  the  summit  of 
fine  art  in  the  finishing  and  decorating 
of  houses,  but  rather  to  plant  simple 
stepping-stones  for  those  who  are  likely  to  be  left 
somewhat  behind  in  the  headlong  race  for  greater 
refinement  of  taste  and  a  higher  degree  of  aesthetic 
culture,  —  a  race  not  without  its  dangers  and  draw- 
backs, but,  though  sometimes  false  in  its  motives, 
always  hopeful  in  its  promise. 

Without  the  aid  and  encouragement  of  her  who 
for  many  years  has  been  the  light  of  my  own  home, 
neither  this  book  nor  its  predecessors  would  have 
been  written  ;  and  any  helpfulness  that  may  be  found 
in  them,  any  merit  they  may  have,  either  in  style 
or  in  matter,  is  due  to  her  careful  suggestions  and 
faithful  criticism. 

E.  C.  G. 

Springfield,  December,  1877. 


CONTENTS. 

FIRST  DAY. 

Page 

Paper-Hangings  13 

SECOND  DAY. 
Walls,  Floors,  and  Blinds   ......  29 

THIRD  DAY. 
Blinds.  —  Wood  vs.  Paint  '56 

FOURTH  DAY. 
Wall-Painting  and  Paper-Hangings    .     .      .  -78 

FIFTH  DAY. 
Doors  and  Screens   •103 


SIXTH  DAY. 
Casings,  Caps,  and  Window  Seats     ....  129 


viii 


CONTENTS. 


SEVENTH  DAY. 
Stairways  and  Tiles  152 

EIGHTH  DAY. 
Fireplaces  and  Big  Windows  177 

NINTH  DAY. 

Renovating  Old  Houses,  various  Decorations  and 
Furnishings  207 


BY  WAY  OF  APPENDIX. 
How  John's  House  was  Painted       ....  242 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


A  Calm  Outlook  Frontispiece. 

Despair  Page  19 

Pictures  and  Pictures   24 

"The  Lilies,  how  they  Grow!"     .      .      .      .  31 

Nothing  but  Paper   33 

Weighed  in  the  Balance   36 

Oak  and  Walnut,  Striped  Centre    ....  41 

Practical  Jokes   47 

Two  Kinds  of  Oak.      .   51 

What  the  Blinds  Prevent   57 

Waiting  for  Orders   62 

Painted  Panels   65 

Not  according  to  Rule   73 

Aspiring  Storks   81 

Stencils   85 

Wood,  Paper,  and  Paint   89 

On  the  way  to  Worcester   93 

Square  Toes   99 

Morse's  Alphabet   105 


X 


ILL  USTRA  TIONS. 


Where  shall  the  Pictures  be  ?     .      .      .      .  109 

A  Strong  Defence   113 

A  Door   116 

Cautious,  but  not  Convenient   117 

Another  Door   119 

Screen  Above   120 

One  of  Warwick's   121 

Brown  Linen  Background   125 

Visible  Means  of  Support   133 

Fantastic  Heads   137 

Help  for  a  Rough  Road   141 

Buttress  and  Brackets   145 

A  Leaf  from  the  Prophet   149 

A  Swift  Descent   .  153 

Substitutes  for  Balusters   155 

Strength  and  Lightness   159 

A  Broad  Landing   163 

A  Hidden  Staircase   167 

A  Long  Walk   171 

Too  COSTLY  for  EVERY  ROOM   175 

The  Beginning  of  Civilization      .      .      .      .  179 

A  Simple  Niche   183 

Centre  of  Attraction   187 

Swinging  from  a  Crane   190 

Impartial  Simplicity   191 

Brass  Watchmen   195 

Ornamental  Shams   i99 

Suited  to  all  Seasons   203 

John's  Window-Boxes   215 


ILL  US TRA  TIONS.  xi 


Company  Clothes   219 

Homemade  Fireplace   222 

One  Evening's  Work   223 

Noah's  Ark   225 

Borders  of  Plain  Paper   229 

Safe  Mirrors  and  Paper  Caps   233 

Ghostly  Grains  and  Grasses   237 

Sheets  and  Pillow-Cases   247 

An  Exasperating  Color   251 

Anti-Evolutionists   255 

Taking  Notes   259 

Mud-Pies   263 

Cool  Grays   266 

Babes  in  the  Wood   268 


HOME  INTERIORS 


LEAVES  FROM  AN  ARCHITECTS  DIARY. 


FIRST  DAY. 

PAPER-HANGINGS. 

T  may  be  owing  to  the  hard  times,  per- 
haps it  is  the  result  of  "  Art  Educa- 
tion "  in  Massachusetts,  or,  possibly, 
nothing  more  or  less  than  the  working  of  the 
everlasting  law  of  growth  that  none  of  us  can 
help  or  hinder,  but,  whatever  the  immediate  or 
remote  cause,  we,  the  people,  seem  possessed  at 
present  with  a  mania  for  "  Interior  Decoration  "  ; 
not  of  our  bodies,  nor  yet  of  our  souls,  but  of 


14 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


our  domestic  habitations.  When  I  read  the  in- 
structions and  dogmatisms  on  the  subject,  listen 
to  the  discussions,  look  at  the  pictures,  witness 
the  achievements,  and  try  to  answer  the  queries 
propounded,  I  am  wellnigh  distracted,  and  thank 
my  stars  that  the  windows  of  my  study  look  out 
into  the  calmness  of  an  impenetrable  forest  — 
impenetrable  by  sight,  I  mean  —  not  a  chimney 
or  a  turret  can  I  see,  not  even  a  rail-fence  or  a 
rustic  chair,  only  the  gray  boles  of  the  trees 
hiding  and  retreating  in  dim  perspective,  dark 
ferns,  and  the  inimitable  canopy  of  green  leaves 
and  golden  sunlight. 

But  these  art-yearnings  relating  to  our  inte- 
riors must  not  be  quenched.  Quite  the  reverse. 
I  would  stir  them  to  greater  activity  and  discon- 
tent if  I  could,  and  may  as  well  begin  to-night, 
here  and  now.  Every  day  brings  its  own  conun- 
drum, the  solution  of  which  is  more  important 
than  prognosticating  the  future,  or  prodding  into 


PAPER-HANGINGS. 


15 


the  past.  It  is  therefore  resolved  that  the  actual 
experiences  of  each  day  for  a  single  month  shall 
be  herein  chronicled.  Not  for  the  benefit  of 
artists,  architects,  amateurs,  or  professional  dec- 
orators, those  who  are  wise  or  famous  or  both, 
nor  yet  for  the  "  great  unwashed,"  —  until  a  man 
has  learned  the  practical  art  of  cleanliness,  finer 
pearls  are  worse  than  wasted  before  him, — but 
for  the  "  great  unthinking,"  to  whom  it  has  never 
occurred  that  they  can  do  otherwise  than  follow 
meekly  in  the  paths  of  their  uninteresting  pre- 
decessors ;  who  do  what  they  are  taught,  and 
imitate  what  they  see,  without  asking  whether 
the  teaching  and  the  examples  are  wise  and 
right:  chiefly,  in  short,  for  those  who  would 
gratify  the  longing  for  pleasant  and  interesting 
homes  without  incurring  burdens  of  debt,  dis- 
honesty, or  degrading  toil. 

Dante  was,  doubtless,  a  most  neat  and  orderly 
person,  being  a  poet,  but  it  is  certain  that  he 


i6 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


knew  nothing  about  house-cleaning,  neither  had 
he  any  personal  knowledge  of  New  England 
weather.  The  two  taken  together  produce  an 
infernal  result,  than  which  nothing  more  intense 
in  the  way  of  purgatory  could  possibly  be  desired. 
House-cleaning,  like  death  and  taxes,  is  among 
the  inevitables.  It  is  also  periodically  invaria- 
ble, like  the  monsoons  of  the  Indian  Ocean  and 
Encke's  comet  The  weather  is  inevitable  like- 
wise, but  how,  when,  or  where  any  particular 
phase  will  appear,  no  mortal  being  can  tell 
twenty-four  hours  beforehand.  Old  Probabilities 
is  safe  at  twenty-three  and  a  half,  but  fails  mis- 
erably at  twenty-four.  This  year  two  or  three 
weeks  of  May  have  dropped  out  of  the  calendar, 
and  the  first  of  May  house-cleaning  comes  in  the 
last  of  May  weather.  Of  course  the  house-clean- 
ing is  all  right,  —  the  weather  all  wrong. 

For  this  reason  I  have  made  a  masterly  retreat 
into  the  northwest  corner  of  the  house,  in  a  vain 


FA  PER- HA  NGINGS, 


17 


endeavor  to  hide  from  the  abomination  of  deso- 
lation that  prevails  within  and  the  sweltering 
heat  without,  from  which  there  is  no  escape. 

About  eleven  this  morning,  Mrs.  Douglass 
came  in,  fanning  herself  with  her  last  year's  hat 
retrimmed  with  mandarin  yellow,  and  sank  ex- 
hausted into  the  only  unoccupied  chair  in  the 
house.  Could  I  and  would  I  come  over  and  tell 
her  what  to  do  with  Aunt  Mary's  room  }  "  It 
is  to  be  MolHe's  room  now,  and  must  of  course  be 
repapered,  redraped,  and  rejuvenated  altogether." 

"  To-morrow  will  answer  1  " 

"  To-morrow  will  not  answer.  Every  room  in 
the  house  is  topsy-turvy." 

"  Excellent !  Then  why  not  put  one  or  two 
of  them  right  side  up  to-day,  lest  the  governor's 
wife  should  call  to-morrow  } " 

I  will  tell  you  why,  precisely,  if  you  will  have 
the  goodness  to  listen.    We've  bought  new  mat- 


i8 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


ting  for  the  drawing-room,  to  begin  with,  the  old 
matting  is  to  be  laid  in  our  room,  and  our  carpet 
is  going  into  Aunt  Mary's  —  I  mean  Mollie's. 
The  furniture  in  the  guest-room  needs  painting, 
and  I 've  given  that  to  Mollie.  Then  I  shall  put 
the  north-chamber  set  into  the  guest-room,  and 
get  new  for  the  north  chamber.  Israel  is  de- 
termined to  move  the  two  small  book-cases  from 
the  library  —  which  you  know  is  overflowing  — 
into  the  drawing-room,  and  if  he  does  that  I  shall 
transfer  some  of  the  vases  and  engravings  from 
the  dining-room  —  they  ought  never  to  have  been 
there  —  into  the  library,  and  carry  the  large  fruit- 
piece  from  the  hall  to  the  dining-room.  There  ! 
Do  you  comprehend  the  situation  ?  Do  you  see 
that  it  is  impossible  to  touch  a  thing  in  the  house 
that  is  n't  waiting  for  that  room  ?  It  is  like  a 
row  of  tumbling  bricks.  The  operations  of  the 
entire  household  are  blockaded  by  a  roll  of 
paper." 


DESPAIR. 


PAPER-HANGINGS. 


21 


We  found  Mollie  sitting  on  a  Saratoga  trunk 
in  the  middle  of  her  newly  acquired  territory, 
and  looking  very  much  like  Marius  surveying 
the  ruins  of  Carthage.  The  old  paper  positively 
refused  to  be  peeled  from  the  walls,  and  Mollie 
wept  at  the  thought  of  putting  the  new  over  the 
old,  dark  hangings  that  have  been  absorbing 
mould  and  damp,  germs  of  disease,  contagion,  and 
nobody  knows  what  other  invisible  and  obnox- 
ious elements,  for  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

"  It  must  and  shall  come  off,"  cried  the  dis- 
tracted maiden.  "  My  beautiful  new  paper  shall 
not  be  used  as  a  mere  overskirt  for  this  horrid 
old  stuff.  It  may  not  actually  show  through,  but 
I  shall  think  I  see  it  all  the  time,  and  if  I  must 
have  a  skeleton  he  shall  not  be  spread  all  over 
the  walls,  but  hang  in  the  closet  where  he  be- 
longs." 

For  once  sentiment  and  common-sense  are  in 
sweet  accord  ;  the  walls  are  to  be  douched  with 


22 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


hot  water,  and  scraped  with  cold  steel  until  they 
are  as  clean  as  a  Dutch  kitchen.  This  wise 
decision  in  favor  of  cleanliness  having  been 
reached,  we  gave  ourselves  up  to  a  rapt  study 
of  the  beautiful,  as  embodied  in  a  dozen  or  two 
rolls  and  detached  samples  of  paper-hangings. 
What  a  delightful  thing  it  would  be  if  the  ques- 
tion of  cost  never  entered  into  a  matter  of  taste ! 
But  even  with  paper,  that  most  abundant  and 
democratic  material,  it  makes  a  perceptible  dif- 
ference whether  the  price  per  roll  is  told  in  dol- 
lars or  cents,  a  difference  in  estimates  rather 
than  in  actual  results,  —  for  paper  is  paper  and 
will  be  nothing  but  paper  to  the  end  of  time, 
however  much  it  may  be  illuminated  with  gold 
and  mica,  poisoned  with  arsenic,  polished  with 
paste,  or  feathered  with  felt.  Like  our  own 
righteousness  it  is  filthy  rags  at  best,  and  whoso 
looks  upon  it  as  anything  better  is  not  clair- 
voyant. 


PAPER-HANGINGS. 


23 


However,  Mollie's  room  is  to  be  papered,  rags 
or  not,  and  until  the  selection  is  made  —  until 
the  bear  begins  to  bite  the  dog  —  there  is  a  dead- 
lock in  the  reconstruction  of  the  household. 

I  suppose  that,  omitting  the  fooHsh  following 
after  fashion  which  is  the  normal  condition  of 
most  human  beings  in  regard  to  all  things  in 
which  fashion  is  possible, 'the  next  mortal  weak- 
ness that  prevents  a  wise  and  tasteful  selection 
of  paper-hangings  is  the  inability  to  imagine  the 
effect  in  gross  of  that  which  is  only  seen  piece- 
meal. By  way  of  moral  instance,  most  sensible 
people  would  be  appalled  if  their  own  little  pet 
habits,  meannesses,  and  frailties  were  multiplied 
by  universal  humanity  and  displayed  on  the 
broad  canopy  of  heaven.  Mrs.  Douglass  ex- 
pressed a  perception  of  this  fact  —  as  to  paper  — 
by  saying  that  she  has  "most  generally  always" 
found  papers  that  look  well  in  samples  to  be  ugly 
on  the  wall,  and  vice  versa.    This  is  quite  true 


24 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


if  by  those  "  that  look  well  in  sample  "  she  means 
those  having  pretty  and  interesting  designs  in 
bright  colors.  Lining  the  walls  of  a  room  with 
several  hundreds  of  such  pictures  is  painful  to 
an  artist  and  disquieting  to  everybody.  Before 


PICTURES  AND  PICTURES. 

chromos  and  heliotypes  were  invented,  and  be- 
fore rustic  walnut  frames  grew  on  blackberry- 
bushes,  as  they  do  now,  it  was  very  entertaining 
to  see  landscapes  and  architectural  designs, 
sporting  scenes  and  brilliant  bouquets,  sprinkled 


PAPER-HANGINGS. 


25 


at  regular  intervals  around  the  room ;  but  to 
cover  the  walls  with  pictures  of  one  sort  with- 
out frames,  and  overlay  these  with  pictures 
of  another  kind  with  frames  is  destruction  to 
both.  Happily  Miss  Mollie  appreciates  this  gen- 
eral principle,  and  has  set  her  heart  upon  a  quiet 
sort  of  a  drabbish-brown  without  a  conspicuous 
figure  of  any  sort.  We  talked  of  plain  papers, 
but  the  cheap,  plain  papers  are  not  what  they 
promise  to  be,  they  soil  so  easily,  the  joinings 
will  show,  a  little  dab  of  paste  is  an  incurable 
blot,  and  the  tints  are  apt  to  disappoint.  One 
may  as  well  have  plain  paint  or  even  kalsomine. 
So  plain  paper  was  vetoed,  and  a  pretty  selec- 
tion at  twenty-five  cents  per  roll  was  quickly 
made, —  a  small  set  figure  having  only  two  colors, 
almost  but  not  quite  one  shade  of  the  same. 

And  now  came  the  tug  of  war.  Mollie  has 
set  her  heart  upon  a  dadoy  mainly,  I  think,  be- 
cause  it  is  a  new  revelation   in  the    use  of 


26 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


paper-hangings,  —  new  to  her  ;  in  fact,  an  old 
fashion  revived,  and  a  very  good  one,  too,  though 
I 'm  not  sure  that  there  can  be  any  logical  rea- 
son for  it  in  a  bedroom,  —  a  frieze  seems  more 
in  order.  One  can  lie  in  bed  and  watch  a  pro- 
cession of  pilgrims,  peacocks,  or  hippopotami 
around  the  top  of  the  room  with  great  comfort, 
but  the  dado,  especially  behind  the  bed,  the 
wardrobe,  and  the  dressing-table,  is  thrown 
away. 

On  looking  through  the  samples  of  paper- 
hangings  that  may  be  collected  at  any  moder- 
ately extensive  establishment,  one  would  suppose 
that  he  has  only  to  wave  a  wand,  when,  lo ! 
any  required  color,  cost,  style,  and  pattern  v^ill 
appear.  But  just  try  it  once.  From  the  expe- 
rience of  to-day  learn  all.  The  wall-screen  was 
quickly  chosen,  —  the  quiet  drabbish-brown  that 
is  to  form  the  background  for  the  pictures,  for 
the  tall  furniture,  for  MoUie  herself  when  she 


PAPER-HANGINGS. 


27 


is  at  home,  and  which  will  cover  the  wall  from 
within  three  feet  of  the  floor  to  sixteen  inches 
of  the  ceiKng.  Below  this  screen  the  paper 
must  be  darker,  richer  in  appearance,  and  either 
harmonious  with  it  in  color,  or  happily  contrast- 
ing. Then  there  must  be  a  band  of  some  sort 
separating  the  two.  The  sixteen-inch  zone  at 
the  top  must  be,  like  MoUie  herself,  pretty,  deli- 
cate, and  lively.  It  must  have  a  border  at  the 
top  and  some  bond  of  color  to  indicate  its  junc- 
tion with  the  wall-screen.  It  is  wonderfully 
easy  to  describe  how  it  ought  to  be  done.  We 
found  the  work  itself  a  more  complicated  affair. 
Every  pattern  we  had  was  good  by  itself,  — 
several  of  them  "  matched  "  admirably,  and  when 
paper-hangings  do  match  the  match  is  surely 
made  in  heaven.  But  though  we  rung  as  many 
changes  on  them  as  could  be  rung  on  a  dozen 
Swiss  bells,  —  several  hundred  millions,  —  I 
have  just  come  home  in  disgrace,  leaving  Mrs. 


28 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


Douglass  in  despair,  Mollie  in  tears,  and  the 
whole  house  in  a  "  state  to  behold." 

To-morrow  we  are  to  make  a  raid  on  the 
paper  warehouses. 


SECOND  DAY. 

WALLS,  FLOORS,  AND  BLINDS. 

EDIOCRITY  is  as  easily  attained  in 
paper-hangings  as  in  everything  else. 
To  rise  above  that  we  must  watch  and 
fight  and  pray,  —  if  work  is  prayer.  Whether 
the  result  is  worth  the  pains  may  be  a  question. 
I  think  it  is.  One  may  as  well  go  and  be  a 
brother  to  the  sluggish  clod  at  once  as  to  take 
passage  in  the  fireight-train  of  "  commonplace." 

We  must  have  made  ourselves  terrible  to  the 
paper-dealers,  this  morning,  by  our  persistent 
research  and  positive  refusal  to  accept  what  was 
not  satisfactory.  Of  course  we  admitted,  what 
was  true,  that  the  hangings  were  elegant  and 


30 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


tasteful,  but  most  salesmen  seem  incapable  of 
comprehending  the  fact  that  a  fifteen-cent  paper 
may  be  infinitely  more  appropriate  for  a  given 
purpose,  and  therefore  more  beautiful,  than  one 
that  costs  ten  times  as  much,  nor  could  they 
conceive  the  state  of  mind  that  decidedly  pre- 
fers an  unfashionable  color.  By  the  way,  I  won- 
der how  it  happens  that  the  lilies  of  the  field 
retain  their  popularity  without  changing  the 
forms  and  colors  in  which  they  are  arrayed ! 

We  found  that  the  paper  selected  yesterday 
for  the  central  part  of  the  walls  fell  in  love  at 
sight  with  a  dark  brown,  having  a  delicate  gilt 
scroll  running  over  it,  and  we  performed  the 
nuptials  on  the  spot  with  the  aid  of  a  brown 
stripe  cut  from  a  fifteen-cent  roll.  Its  color  was 
perfect,  and  we  were  quite  indifferent  to  its 
quality.  But  I 'm  getting  ahead  of  the  story. 
We  first  tried  to  find  ready-made  borders  that 
would  officiate  in  uniting,  for  better  or  worse, 


WALLS,  FLOORS,  AND  BLINDS. 


31 


the  grand  divisions,  —  dado,  screen,  and  frieze. 
They  all  proved  "for  worse"  with  one  excep- 


"the  lilies,  how  they  grow!" 


tion,  which  cost  twenty-five  cents  a,  yard. 
Twenty-five  cents  is  n't  a  large  sum,  but  if 
the  border  must  go  two  or  three  times  around 


32 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


the  room,  at  twenty  or  thirty  yards  a  time, 
the  final  result  is  somewhat  formidable.  One 
roll  of  cheap  striped  paper  will  furnish  several 
bands  more  or  less  decorated,  and  far  more 
serviceable  than  the  gaudy,  self-asserting  bor- 
ders that  are  "gotten  up  for  the  occasion  re- 
gardless of  expense."  If  the  manufacturers  of 
paper-hangings  would  only  give  us,  in  common 
rolls,  simple  belts  of  color,  with  perhaps  a  line 
of  gilt,  black  or  velvet  at  one  edge,  and  leave  the 
buyer  to  cut  them  up  to  suit  his  fancy,  it  would 
be  a  grand  thing  in  a  small  way  for  the  noble 
art  of  interior  decoration  by  means  of  paper. 
The  plain  paper  will  not  answer  as  well,  partly 
because  an  entire  roll  —  the  smallest  quantity 
that  can  be  bought  —  may  be  five  times  as  much 
as  is  needed,  and  chiefly  on  account  of  the 
greater  difficulty  of  cutting  it  into  strips  of  uni- 
form width. 

For  the  frieze,  that  is,  the  sixteen  inches  at  the 


NOTHING  BUT  PAPER. 


WALLS,  FLOORS,  AND  BLINDS. 


35 


top  of  the  room,  Mollie  found  a  paper,  the  ground 
a  trifle  darker  than  the  wall-screen,  the  figure 
lively  and  clear  in  rich  browns,  with  here  and 
there  a  dash  of  crimson  and  gilt.  A  stripe  cut 
from  the  fifteen-cent  roll  will  unite  this  frieze 
with  the  paper  below  it ;  another  bounds  the  frieze 
at  the  top,  and  is  itself  finished  by  a  narrow  band 
of  plain  crimson  flock.  The  room  has  no  cornice 
of  wood  or  plaster.  The  stripe  at  the  top  of  the 
frieze  under  the  crimson  has  a  row  of  small 
spots  —  stars,  or  something  of  the  sort  —  that 
are  to  be  cut  out  alternately,  making  a  kind 
of  dentil  course.  There  is  also  a  narrow  fret 
to  be  cut  from  the  inexhaustible  fifteen-center, 
that  is  appended  to  the  "  regular  "  border  at  the 
top  of  the  dado,  and  still  another  marks  the  junc- 
tion of  the  dado  with  the  wood  base  at  the  floor. 
As  usual,  the  most  expensive  item  could  best  be 
spared,  —  the  orthodox  border.  A  simpler  band 
would  have  been  more  harmonious  and  less  likely 


36 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


WEIGHEO   IN   THE  BALANCE. 


to  become  weari- 
some. In  answer 
to  her  mother's  al- 
lusion to  this  ex- 
travagance, Mollie, 
who  had  staked  her 
happiness  on  this 
belt  of  golden  scrolls 
and  shining  drag- 
on-flies, promptly- 
proposed  to  sacri- 
fice a  spring  bon- 
net in  order  to 
She  then  summed 


make  the  accounts  balance, 
up  the  cost  as  follows :  — 

8  rolls  for  wall-screen  at  25  c   $  2.00 

2  rolls  for  dado  at  40  c  80 

2  rolls  striped  paper  for  borders  at  1 5  c  30 

2  yards  crimson  flock  for  borders  at  35  c  Jo 

25  yards  dragon-flies  for  borders  at  25  c   6.25 

$  10.05 

Less  spring  bonnet   6.25 


Net  cost   $3-8o 


WALLS,  FLOORS,  AND  BLINDS. 


37 


"As  the  pieces  will  be  short  I  might  put  it  on 
myself,"  said  Mollie,  "  but  if  I  hire  a  man  it  will 
cost  four  dollars  more.  Call  it  eight  dollars  for 
the  room." 

We  agreed  that  this  was  a  very  moderate  out- 
lay, but  I  suggested  an  additional  item  of  twenty- 
seven  dollars,  which  ought  to  be  included  to  pay 
for  the  time,  board,  traveUing  expenses,  and  tal- 
ents of  three  persons  one  and  a  half  days  each. 

"What  a  base  idea!"  said  Mollie, —  "who 
would  think  of  pecuniary  reward  for  partici- 
pating in  a  work  of  art }  This  painful  research 
has  been  a  rare  and  blessed  privilege.  A  thing 
of  beauty  is  a  joy  forever,  and  my  lovely  room 
would  n't  have  been  possible  without  this  pro- 
tracted and  distracting  study  of  tints  and  tones, 
hues  and  movements.  We  have  made  a  tri- 
umphant success,  our  fame  is  established  ;  let 
no  mercenary  thoughts  intrude ! " 

So  we  all  came  home  happy,  —  Mollie  in  an- 


38 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


ticipation  of  the  charming  room,  Mrs.  Douglass 
because  the  stone  that  blocked  the  wheels  of 
Juggernaut  was  at  last  removed,  and  I  because  I 
was  hungry  and  it  was  dinner-time. 

Instead  of  trying  to  invent  a  license  law  that 
will  make  it  a  crime  for  one  man  to  do  what  is 
quite  right  for  another,  I  wish  our  legislators 
would  establish  an  hour  at  which  all  citizens  of 
the  Commonwealth  should  dine.  On  my  list  of 
friends  are  those  who  take  their  midday  meal  at 
twelve,  M.,  twelve-thirty,  p.  m.,  at  one,  and  so  on 
at  every  hour  and  half-hour  until  it  is  time  for 
honest  folks  to  be  in  bed.  I  could  easily  dine 
for  six  or  eight  consecutive  hours  by  going  from 
one  friend  to  another,  and  seldom  finish  a  square 
dinner  at  home  without  being  interrupted  by 
some  one  who  has  either  dined  already,  or  expects 
to  get  home  in  season  for  dinner. 

To-day  I  was  called  up  stairs  just  before  des- 


WALLS,  FLOORS,  AND  BLINDS. 


39 


sert,  and  found  Mr.  Jackson  with  a  lamentable 
tale  of  four  or  five  workmen  waiting  for  orders, 
and  I  must  step  into  his  carriage  and  go  with 
him  to  look  at  the  dining-room  floor.  It  is  an 
old  house  in  which  a  new  finish  of  hard  wood  is 
to  replace  the  old  painted  work,  and  the  ques- 
tion is  whether  to  remove  the  old  floor,  which  is 
of  pine,  wide  boards,  somewhat  shrunken  and 
uneven. 

I  might  as  well  have  given  directions  and  fin- 
ished my  dinner  as  a  Christian  gentleman  has  a 
right  to  do :  Take  up  the  pine  floor,  straighten 
and  repair  the  lining,  if  there  is  one,  —  if  not, 
lay  one,  —  put  in  extra  supports  if  the  joists  are 
too  far  apart,  lay  a  solid  hard-wood  floor  of  par- 
quetry, and  throw  carpets  to  the  dogs.  I  gave 
Mr.  Jackson  this  advice  before  we  had  gone  forty 
rods,  but  he  was  full  of  misgivings.  He  feared 
madam  would  n't  like  it,  feared  the  expense, 
feared  it  would  be  cold,  feared  it  would  n't  wear 


40 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


well.  Yet  he  is  a  good  man  and  a  brave,  not 
given  to  weak  and  womanish  fears,  —  but  a 
"  bare "  floor  !    No,  I  must  go  and  look  at  it. 

Now,  on  this  subject  of  hard- wood  floors  my 
head  is  perfectly  level,  my  heart  is  fixed,  my  con- 
science clear.  Like  Susan  Nipper,  I  say  to  some 
and  all,  that  I  may  not  be  a  flat-head  Indian,  and 
would  not  so  become,  but  if  I  had  got  to  take  my 
choice  between  living  all  my  life  on  a  Turkey 
carpet  or  on  the  bare  ground-floor  of  a  barba- 
rian wigwam,  I  should  take  the  bare  ground  of 
the  wigwam.  Of  course  civilized  heathens  don't 
agree  with  me,  and  cling  to  their  flesh-pots  as  if 
the  salvation  of  their  nerves,  their  comfort,  their 
social  standing,  and  their  moral  character  de- 
pended upon  the  thickness  of  the  wool  carpets 
under  their  feet,  and  their  capacity  for  absorbing 
and  retaining  dirt.  I  think  it  is  actually  true,  as 
I  told  John  the  other  day,  that  a  carpeted  room 
would  be  cleaner  and  the  people  who  live  in  it 


OAK  AND  WALNUT,  STRIPED  CENTRE. 


WALLS,  FLOORS,  AND  BLINDS. 


43 


would  be  longer  in  consuming  their  allotted  peck 
of  dirt,  if  the  carpet  was  never  swept  from  the 
time  it  was  put  down  till  it  was  taken  up,  even 
if  the  children  should  occasionally  drop  their 
bread-and-butter,  butter  side  down,  step  on 
fragments  of  gingerbread  and  wax-dolls,  and  for- 
get to  pick  up  the  bits  of  paper  and  other  litter 
that  is  evolved  spontaneously  where  men  and 
children  are.  I  only  wish  the  enlightened  sav- 
ages who  believe  in  wool  carpets  the  year  round 
were  required  to  put  them  down  and  take  them 
up  every  year,  and  hold  the  inquest  on  the 
remains. 

I  made  some  such  observation  to  Mrs.  Jack- 
son, and,  I  fear,  shocked  her  greatly  by  my  ve- 
hemence. She  did  n't  like  to  be  called  a  bar- 
barian, and  could  n't  give  up  her  carpet.  So  we 
finally  compromised  the  matter  by  deciding  on 
a  smooth  hard  floor  for  the  centre  of  the  room, 
with  a  parquet  border  about  two  and  a  half  feet 


44 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


wide,  next  the  walls,  a  simple  pattern  of  two 
colors.  The  carpet  will  be  a  large  rug  that  can 
be  taken  up  every  day.  The  entire  floor  will  be 
waxed,  and  kept  clean  and  bright. 

While  we  were  discussing  the  matter.  Lady 
Jane  came  in  and  began  to  observe  in  her  most 
languishing  manner  that,  of  course,  't  was  a  mat- 
ter of  taste,  —  for  her  part  —  I  did  n't  wait  to 
hear  what  "her  part"  might,  could,  would,  or 
should  be.  I  know  it  is  not  a  matter  of  taste 
merely,  but  of  common-sense  and  of  eternal  fit- 
ness. Without  again  referring  to  the  disregard 
of  cleanliness,  what  can  be  more  incongruous 
from  an  artistic  point  of  view  than  walls  of  hard 
wood  and  plaster,  solid  wainscot  of  oak  or  maple, 
pilasters  and  columns,  heavy  furniture,  piano, 
book-case,  and  table,  marble  mantel,  busts  and 
bronzes,  all  resting  or  appearing  to  rest  on  a  soft 
cushion  of  spun  and  woven  wool Gentlemen 
may  cry  peace,  but  there  will  be  no  peace  till 


WALLS,  FLOORS,  AND  BLINDS. 


45 


some  of  the  first  principles  of  common-sense  are 
observed  in  our  interior  finishings. 

Every  one  of  Mr.  Jackson's  fears  is  wholly 
groundless,  except,  of  course,  the  first.  A  prop- 
erly laid  parquet  floor  will  outwear  five  hundred 
carpets.  Its  first  cost  above  what  is  indispen- 
sable for  any  floor  will  not  be  more  than  that  of 
one  good  Brussels  carpet ;  it  is  not  cold,  —  if  the 
house  is  warm  it  won't  feel  so,  except  to  those 
who  go  barefoot,  and  it  makes  no  noise  at  all ! 
Rude,  clumsy  people  in  hobnailed  shoes  will  raise 
a  tumult  anywhere,  either  with  their  feet  or  with 
their  tongues,  but  no  one  could  imagine  the  gods 
holding  their  dignified  councils  in  salons  car- 
peted with  velvet  tapestry.  Neither  do  they  tramp 
and  stamp  and  slam  doors.  Doubtless  there 
are  people  who  ought  to  have  all  their  salient 
angles  protected  with  rubber  cushions  to  save 
from  damage  and  destruction  everything  with 
which  they  may  come  in  contact.    Careful  and 


46 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


well-bred  occupants  of  civilized  dwellings  do  not 
find  it  necessary  to  cushion  the  floors,  or  put 
pantalets  on  the  piano. 

Mr.  Jackson  doubts  the  cost.  Fortunately  I 
can  send  him  to  at  least  one  shop  in  the  State 
where  solid  parquet  floors  of  hard  woods,  seven 
eighths  of  an  inch  thick,  every  piece  tongued 
and  grooved,  perfectly  "  sound,  seasoned,  and 
smooth,"  can  be  furnished  in  various  patterns 
for  one  shilling  per  square  foot.  There  may  be 
others  where  the  same  thing  can  be  had  for  less. 
I  can  show  him  floors  that  have  been  in  use  for 
years  treated  occasionally  to  a  coat  of  benzine 
and  wax,  applied  with  a  large  brush,  and  now  as 
smooth,  clean,  and  glossy  as  any  floor  ought  to 
be.  Of  course  a  hard-pine  floor  laid  in  stripes 
three  or  four  inches  wide,  the  alternate  boards 
stained  with  turpentine  and  asphaltum,  will  be 
much  cheaper  than  this,  and,  after  deducting  the 
cost  of  the  cheapest  floor  that  can  be  laid,  there 


PRACTICAL  JOKES. 


WALLS,  FLOORS,  AND  BLINDS. 


49 


is  n't  much  left  for  carpet.  Mrs.  Jackson's  large 
rug  will  allow  the  centre  of  the  floor  to  be  laid 
in  this  plain  fashion,  and  if  the  stripes  happen  to 
show  around  the  edges  there  will  be  no  harm 
done. 

There  is  another  attribute  of  these  parquet 
floors  which  proves  them  to  be  in  grand  accord 
with  the  eternal  verities  ;  the  most  simple  and 
natural  patterns  are  also  the  most  beautiful.  I 
can't  imagine  who  first  promulgated  the  insane 
idea  that  a  wood  floor  must  look  as  much  as 
possible  like  tile,  a  tile  floor  as  much  as  possible 
like  oil-cloth,  and  oil-cloth  as  much  as  possible 
like  a  Merrimack  print.  Beyond  all  question 
those  designs  for  parquetry  that  are  most  con- 
sistent with  the  natural  grain  of  the  wood  and 
facility  of  working  it  are  pleasantest  to  look  upon, 
to  walk  upon,  to  prepare,  to  lay  and  to  pay  for. 
As  facetious  persons  sometimes  hang  a  curved 
mirror  where  a  plain  one  is  expected,  so  a  pattern 


50 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


composed  of  wooden  triangles  and  trapeziums 
may  be  laid,  that,  by  trick  of  form  and  color,  will 
make  the  floor  appear  like  a  lot  of  little  cubes 
set  cornerwise,  a  succession  of  troughs  or  minia- 
ture mountain-ranges.  Such  ought  to  be  looked 
upon  as  practical  jokes,  not  sober  realities.  We 
have  a  right  to  demand  that  a  floor  shall  be 
level  and  smooth.  It  would  be  folly  to  make  it 
actually  rough  and  uneven  ;  it  is  foolish  to  try  to 
cause  or  even  to  allow  it  to  appear  so.  But  then 
there  are  multitudes  of  people  who  court  admira- 
tion by  striving  to  appear  what  they  are  not  and 
know  they  ought  not  to  be. 

Mr.  Jackson  will  use  Georgia  pine  and  black- 
walnut  for  the  border,  pine  alone  for  the  centre. 
Walnut  is  not  always  hard  enough  for  floors,  and 
in  much  quantity  is  too  dark  for  my  fancy,  but 
tastes  differ.  Red  and  white  oak  are  good,  but 
must  be  well  oiled  and  waxed.  Even  then  oak 
seems  to  be  incurably  afflicted  with  chronic 


TWO  KINDS  OF  OAK. 


WALLS,  FLOORS,  AND  BLINDS. 


53 


rheumatism,  joints  troublesome  in  damp  weather. 
Cherry  and  maple  are  good,  so  is  black  birch,  — 
the  heart  and  sap  of  the  birch,  one  dark  and 
the  other  light,  making  a  good  contrast  of  color. 
These  last-named,  however,  though  smooth  and 
hard,  lack  the  life  of  the  pine,  oak,  and  ash, 
which  have  a  more  conspicuous  grain,  and  either 
one  of  which  alone  makes  a  handsome  floor,  the 
design  being  sufficiently  marked  by  the  natural 
fibre,  without  other  variety  of  color. 

Plain  strips  surrounding  the  border  next  the 
walls  form  a  suitable  finish,  and  have  the  im- 
portant merit  of  being  easily  fitted  to  any  irregu- 
larities in  the  outline  of  the  room.  Mrs.  Jackson 
was  in  a  quandary  as  to  whether  the  border 
should  follow  the  outline  of  the  hearth  or  stop 
against  it.  The  grate  being  at  the  side  of  a 
room  already  narrow  a  diminished  border  will 
encircle  the  hearth,  the  rug  will  be  rectangular, 
leaving  the  small  quadrangles  at  the  sides  of  the 
chimney  uncovered. 


54 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


On  my  return  I  found,  instead  of  the  lost  des- 
sert, this  letter  from  Harry,  Junior  :  — 

My  dear  Architect,  —  We  are  in  great  distress 
on  account  of  the  blinds.  How  upon  earth  can  they 
be  hung  upon  the  triple  window  of  the  dining-room, 
on  the  wide  window  of  the  south  chamber,  and  on  the 
bay  window,  so  as  to  be  opened  ?  Mother  says  the 
blind  must  be  opened,  or  we  shall  die  of  the  dampness 
and  the  dumps.  I  can't  afford  inside  shutters.  Mrs. 
Harry  won't  give  up  the  triple  window,  and  there  '11 
be  the  Old  Harry  to  pay  if  you  don't  help  us  out  of  it. 
Yours, 

Harry,  Jun. 

This  is  among  the  delights  of  the  profession ; 
importuned  to  accomplish  impossibilities,  and 
reviled  as  pretenders  if  v^e  plead  inabihty. 
Three  pints,  good  measure,  pressed  down,  shaken 
together  and  running  over,  must  be  poured  into 
the  bosom  of  a  quart  cup,  —  wine  measure  at 
that.    And  this  is  the  form  of  consolation  we 


WALLS,  FLOORS,  AND  BLINDS. 


55 


get :  "I 've  been  told,  sir,  that  you  are  a  man  of 
genius.  If  you  are,  you  can  make  windows  as 
wide  as  a  barn-door,  and  fit  them  with  blinds 
that  will  open  and  close  like  the  wings  of  a  but- 
terfly. You  can  build  stairs  wide  enough  and 
easy  enough  for  a  cart  and  oxen  to  traverse  in 
the  space  occupied  by  a  ninety-nine-cent  step- 
ladder.  You  can  make  windows  and  doors  ten 
feet  high  in  rooms  that  are  but  nine  and  a  half. 
You  can  build  huge  fireplaces  in  the  thickness 
of  a  four-inch  partition,  place  doors  and  windows 
on  all  four  sides  of  a  fifteen-feet  room,  and  still 
have  large  wall-space  for  piano  and  pictures. 
You  can  make  dark  rooms  light,  shady  rooms 
sunny,  low  rooms  high,  small  rooms  large,  and 
you  can  make  five  thousand  dollars  pay  for  what 
is  worth  ten  thousand  dollars.  If  you  say  you 
cannot  accomplish  all  these  things,  I  must  find 
some  one  who  can." 

I  shall  answer  Harry's  letter  about  blinds  in 
the  morning. 


THE  THIRD  DAY. 

BLINDS.  WOOD  vs.  PAINT. 

 ,  May  1 6,  1877. 

EAR  HARRY,  Jun.,  —  I  wish  your  blinds 
would  contrive  to  lead  themselves  or  be 
led  into  somebody's  ditch  and  stay  there. 
They  are  a  great  nuisance,  frail,  shaking,  quivering 
things,  never  staying  open  or  shut  as  they  ought, 
standing  stupidly  in  the  way  of  progress,  and  by  sheer 
obstinacy  preventing  any  change  from  the  humdrum 
and  commonplace.  Your  chamber  needs  the  great 
square  southern  window  :  with  that  it  is  a  dignified 
and  charming  room  ;  but  the  blinds  prefer  two  small 
ones  with  a  pier  between  for  themselves  —  the  lazy 
things  —  to  rest  upon  when  they  are  open.  The 
dining-room  has  only  the  eastern  light.    The  wide 


WHAT  THE  BLINDS  PREVENT. 


BLINDS.  — WOOD  vs.  PAINT. 


59 


opening  formed  by  the  group  of  three  is  indispen- 
sable to  the  best  interior  effect ;  but  the  beauty  of 
ihe  room  must  be  sacrificed  in  order  to  hang  the  out- 
side bhnds.  I  wish  they  were  all  hanged  higher  than 
Haman !  There  should  be  a  hood  resting  upon 
brackets  over  the  southern  library  window,  and  a 
small  balcony  for  flowers  in  front  of  the  window  in 
the  chamber  above.  But  no  !  —  the  blinds  would  n't 
open. 

Please  to  understand  and  remember  this  supreme 
decision  :  outside  blinds  have  no  rights  that  white 
folks  are  bound  to  respect.  They  are  simply  screens 
to  keep  out  sunlight.  They  may  be  nailed  up, 
screwed  up,  tied  up  with  strings,  hinged  at  the  top 
or  bottom,  sides  or  centre,  cut  in  two,  doubled  up, 
chasseed  down  the  middle,  shoved  to  the  right  or 
left  on  rings  or  rollers,  —  anything  to  accommodate 
the  windows.  My  advice  is  to  put  them  only  where 
the  summer  sun  is  most  intrusive,  and,  if  it  happens 
that  these  will  not  open  conveniently,  let  them  lie  in 
the  attic,  except  during  the  hot  weather  when  you  do 


6o 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


not  care  to  open  them  fully.  If,  for  the  sake  of  seclu- 
sion, you  must  have  shutters  for  all  the  windows,  hang 
them  inside  and  provide  with  boxings  into  which  they 
will  fold  when  open.  I  forgot,  —  you  cannot  afford 
inside  shutters  with  boxings.  "Well,  don't  hang  them 
without,  —  they  would  make  the  room  look  like  a 
cheap  school-house  or  a  restaurant.  Venetian  blinds 
are  pretty  and  accommodating.  They  will  slide  up 
out  of  sight  or  down  over  the  entire  window  ;  the  slats 
will  roll  and  remain  at  any  desired  angle,  and  they 
never  quarrel  with  the  curtains.  If  you  cannot  afford 
these,  make  a  shade  of  some  heavy  draping  cloth  that 
will  exclude  the  light,  let  it  be  suspended  from  a  large 
rod  at  the  top,  and  contrived  to  roll  up  by  pulling  a 
cord  or  to  slide  upon  large  rings.  These  shades  should 
fit  tlie  window  and  hang  straight  and  flat  or  nearly  so. 
The  material  may  be  cheap  and  coarse  ;  it  may  be 
left  quite  unadorned,  or  decorated  with  simple  hori- 
zontal bands  of  various  widths,  or  other  designs  in 
applique  or  embroidery.  Coarse  jute-cloth,  costing 
thirty  or  forty  cents  per  square  yard,  answers  very 


BLINDS.  —  WOOD  vs.  PAINT. 


6i 


nicely.  The  rich  browns  are  most  available  colors, 
and  the  mere  ravelling  of  the  edges  makes  an  appro- 
priate fringe,  which  may  be  knotted  or  left  straight. 
Even  common  burlaps,  with  a  small  outlay  of  money 
and  a  large  outlay  of  ingenuity,  may  be  made  very 
charming  in  effect.  After  these  there  is  no  end  of 
cretonnes,  crashes,  and  other  fabrics  among  which  you 
can  choose  when  the  time  comes,  and  you  may  be 
happily  inspired  to  use  something  that  has  never 
before  been  devoted  to  this  purpose.  Just  now  you 
only  need  to  be  assured  that,  by  omitting  to  provide 
for  a  full  set  of  regular  outside  blinds,  you  are  in  no 
danger  of  falling  into  a  pit  from  which  there  can  be 
no  escape. 

Yours,  etc., 

That  will  perhaps  set  him  to  thinking,  and  if 
worst  comes  to  worst,  even  the  five-feet  window 
will  not  be  wholly  unmanageable. 

Just  before  dinner  Mollie  came  in  to  ask  what 
can  be  done  with  the  wood-work  of  her  room. 


62 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


In  contrast  with  the  old  paper  the  paint  looked 
bright  and  fresh,  but  the  moment  the  new  was 
pinned  upon  the  wall  to  try  the  effect,  the  doleful 
truth  burst  upon  them  that  the  ceihng  must  be 
distempered  and  the  wood  repainted. 

"  This  discovery  threw  ma  into  a  most  dis- 


WAITING  FOR  ORDERS. 

tressing  state  of  mind.  My  unfortunate  room 
seems  likely  to  destroy  the  peace  of  the  entire 
household.  The  painters  say  it  will  take  two 
coats  to  cover  the  old  paint,  and  the  carpet  can't 
be  put  down  till  it  is  all  dry.  There  are  three 
men  and  nineteen  cans  of  paint  waiting  for  me 


BLINDS.  — 


WOOD  vs.  PAINT. 


63 


to  choose  a  color.  Now  which  hue  of  the  rain- 
bow shall  it  be  ?  " 

How  much  wood-work  is  there  in  the  room 
except  the  floor  and  the  doors  ?  " 

"  Not  any,  nothing  but  a  band  around  next  the 
floor  and  the  pieces  that  go  up  beside  the  doors 
and  windows." 

"  Is  any  of  this  ornamental } " 

"  Ornamental !  No,  indeed.  It 's  as  ugly  as 
possible,  but  it 's  useful,  I  suppose.  Can't  it  be 
covered  up  in  some  way  }  " 

"  Is  it  entirely  plain  }  " 

"  Almost,  not  quite  ;  there 's  a  sort  of  band, 
rounded,  I  think,  at  the  edges.  But  how  can  you 
cover  it  " 

"By  applying  colors  that  will  prevent  it  from 
being  the  most  conspicuous  thing  in  the  room. 
It  should  n't  be  entirely  covered,  only  debarred 
from  occupying  the  prominent  position  to  which 
positive  beauty  is  alone  entitled.    Give  it  a  color 


64 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


similar  to  the  ground  of  the  paper,  but  a  Httle 
darker,  and  make  the  'rounded'  part  a  shade  or 
two  darker  still.  Paint  the  doors  the  same,  all 
but  the  panels,  which  should  match  the  ground 
of  the  furniture  and  be  decorated  by  yourself." 
"  Decorated  by  myself  !  " 

"  Yes,  ma'am,  decorated  by  yourself.  A  door 
is  just  as  much  a  piece  of  furniture  as  a  wardrobe 
or  a  wash-stand,  and  should  be  treated  accord- 
ingly." 

But  if  the  panels  are  to  be  decorated,  they 
should  have  beautiful  paintings  in  oil,  which 
none  but  an  artist  can  execute." 

"  Not  at  all.  A  plain  stripe,  a  fret  or  an  ivy 
vine  in  outUne  or  flat  color,  an  arabesque  of  your 
own  design.  Pray  why  did  you  study  drawing  } 
Is  your  talent  to  be  hidden  in  the  napkin  of  your 
own  portfolio } " 

"  Alas  !  I 'm  '  a  boy  without  a  genius.'  I 
could  n't  originate  a  design  to  save  my  room 
from  destruction." 


> 


BLINDS.— WOOD  vs.  PAINT. 


67 


"  There  is  no  absolute  need  of  originality. 
There  are  plenty  of  graceful  and  appropriate  de- 
signs that  you  can  adopt.  Go  to  the  woods  and 
hills,  pick  up  a  spray  of  wild-blackberry  vine, 
a  cinquefoil,  or  a  fern  leaf,  and  copy  its  form  in 
any  color  you  like.  If  your  free-hand  practice 
won't  enable  you  to  copy  these  to  your  satisfac- 
tion, darken  the  room,  or  take  advantage  of  a 
rainy  evening  when  there 's  no  danger  of  callers, 
suspend  the  object  selected  within  a  pencil's 
length  of  the  door,  set  a  bright  light  at  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  room,  and  trace  the  outline  of  the 
shadow  in  the  place  desired.  The  convolutions, 
veining,  and  overlapping  can  be  filled  in  after- 
wards. Tracing  shadows  is  n't  strictly  artistic 
study,  but  gives  an  admirable  foundation  for  it, 
and  saves  time,  —  a  great  point  in  this  fast-mov- 
ing age." 

"  O  dear !  what  a  work  it  is  to  finish  one 
little  chamber !  I  don't  believe  the  founding  of 
the  Roman  nation  was  anything  like  it." 


68 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


"  Probably  not,  but  I  have  yet  to  learn  of  any- 
thing worth  possessing  that  does  not  cost  the 
owner  much  time,  labor,  thought, — yes,  pain  and 
peril.  In  fact,  no  one  can  justly  claim  ownership 
except  upon  these  terms." 

"  Ah  me  !  what  a  dreadful  world  it  is,  to  be 
sure !  —  and  the  painters  are  waiting." 

I  forgot  to  tell  her  that  the  ceiling  must  not 
be  white,  but  a  subdued  gray  or  an  invisible  blue. 
She  will  probably  make  the  discovery  herself. 

It  is  certainly  a  mistake  to  try  to  render  sim- 
ple casings  and  band  mouldings  ornamental  by 
applying  bright  or  striking  colors.  A  slight 
change  of  shade  or  the  blending  of  two  low 
tones  will  prevent  the  tameness  of  a  uniform 
neutral  tint,  and  not  result  in  giving  prominence 
to  constructive  features  that  ought  to  remain  in 
the  background. 

By  a  happy  coincidence,  later  in  the  day  while 


BLINDS.  —  WOOD  vs.  PAINT. 


69 


the  subject  was  still  fresh  in  mind,  St.  Augus- 
tine came  in  to  discuss  the  matter  of  finishing 
his  chambers.  I 'm  pleased  to  observe  that  a 
wholesome  disgust  of  graining  is  becoming  al- 
most universal.  It  takes  a  bold,  bad  man  to 
calmly  assert  a  preference  for  streaked  brown 
paint  in  futile  imitation  of  oak  or  walnut  instead 
of  the  genuine  wood,  the  claim  that  it  is  cheaper 
and  more  easily  kept  clean  being  proven  false. 
It  also  requires  some  boldness  to  assert  an  hon- 
est preference  for  paint  rather  than  the  natural 
surface  and  color  of  pine,  ash,  or  any  of  the 
more  common  woods.  "  Finished  in  hard  wood 
throughout "  is  the  crowning  boast  of  the  modern 
"  villa."  Paint  smells  of  turpentine  and  heresy. 
St.  Augustine  is  bold,  but  not  bad,  and  the 
soul  of  candor  and  courtesy.  Even  to  differ 
from  him  is  better  than  to  agree  with  most 
men. 

"  The  truth  is,"  said  he,  "  I 'm  afraid  of  too 


70 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


much  wood.  I  know  that  painted  work  is  in  a 
certain  sense  disguised.  I  know  that  many- 
woods  are  beautiful  in  grain,  tint,  and  shading  ; 
but  suppose,  in  some  cases,  I  want  a  color  to 
prevail  in  the  furnishing  and  on  the  walls  of  a 
room  which  will  neither  harmonize  nor  contrast 
with  any  available  wood.  What  then  }  " 
"  Paint,  by  all  means." 

"  Do  you  really  mean  so  I  thought  you 
despised  paint." 

"  Far  from  it.  There  is  a  solid  comfort  in 
the  permanence  and  genuineness  of  unconcealed 
ash,  oak,  walnut,  or  pine  that  paint  is  powerless 
to  give,  and  there  are  certain  apartments  and 
offices  in  a  dwelling  in  which  the  essential  finish 
rightfully  dictates  terms  of  peace  and  harmony 
to  the  carpet,  the  curtains,  the  upholstery,  and 
the  walls.  But  when  the  furniture  and  the  other 
movable  and  variable  accessories  hold  absolute 
sway,  then  every  part  of  the  structure  should 


BLINDS.  —  WOOD  vs.  PAINT. 


71 


surrender  unconditionally  to  paint,  polish,  or 
gilding,  as  the  case  may  be.  There  is,  in  truth, 
a  great  variety  of  woods  from  which  we  may 
choose  ;  but  to  obtain  from  them  the  finer  shad- 
ings and  combinations  of  color  is  difficult,  not  to 
say  impossible." 

"  Now  this  is  most  delightful  to  me.  I  have 
lain  awake  nights  trying  to  decide  among  a 
whole  cabinet  of  specimens,  and  have  pictured 
before  my  mind's  eye  the  chambers  in  walnut, 
in  oak,  in  ash,  maple,  cherry,  and  pine,  and  I 'm 
oppressed  with  a  sense  of  *  wooden-ness.'  If  I 
may  be  allowed  to  paint  them  in  delicate  tints, 
my  trouble  on  that  point  is  over." 

"  I  need  not  remind  you  that  this  painting 
must  be  artistically  done.  You  cannot  use  red, 
white,  and  blue,  however  delicately  laid  on,  nor 
other  striking,  obtrusive,  and  inharmonious  col- 
ors. These  will  give  an  impression  of  *  paint- 
iness  '  instead  of  '  wooden-ness.'  " 


72 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


"  O  no  !  And  that  reminds  me  of  another 
trouble.  Is  it  necessary  to  have  so  much  wood  ? 
Must  the  casings  be  so  very  wide  and  prom- 
inent ?  The  windows  will  all  have  curtains,  the 
doors  will  have  portieres  or  screens  of  some  sort. 
Speaking  from  a  non-professional  standpoint,  any 
great  extent  or  elaboration  of  this  wood-work 
seems  quite  unnecessary.  I  wish  it  might  be 
wholly  abolished." 

"  The  non-professional  standpoint  often  com- 
mands a  wider  and  clearer  view  than  can  be 
obtained  in  a  foggy  professional  atmosphere. 
There  is  no  sense  in  a  mathematical  limitation 
for  the  width  of  these  casings  or  base-boards, 
and,  though  a  substantial  protection  is  required 
where  they  are  found,  it  is  most  unreasonable  to 
treat  them  as  ornamental  in  a  room  whose  le- 
gitimate decoration  has  no  affinity  with  huge 
beams,  posts,  and  pilasters  of  wood,  either  bare 
or  painted.    So  you  may  cast  off"  your  burdens, 


NOT  ACCORDING  TO  RULE. 


BLINDS.  —  WOOD  vs.  PAINT. 


75 


sleep  the  sleep  of  the  just,  make  the  architrave 
as  light  as  you  please,  and  paint  them  according 
to  your  own  sweet  will." 

"  I  shall  be  only  too  happy  to  paint  them  just 
as  you  direct,  but  I  could  not  be  content  in  the 
thought  that  everything  in  and  about  the  room 
must  pass  under  the  yoke  of  conformity  to  the 
unyielding  demands  of  unpainted  wood." 

To  one  less  fastidious,  or  in  a  house  of  fewer 
rooms,  a  judicious  selection  from  the  "  cabinet 
of  specimens  "  ought  to  furnish  a  sufficient  vari- 
ety. The  heavier,  coarse-grained  woods  do,  un- 
questionably, give  a  sense  of  "  wooden-ness  "  and 
nonconformity  that  is  sometimes  oppressive,  but 
white  maple,  white  pine,  holly,  poplar,  for  light 
effects,  black  birch,  cherry,  mahogany  for  darker, 
have  each  a  fine  grain  and  readily  assimilating 
hues.  If  well  managed,  the  sacrifices  made  to 
their  individuality  do  not  appear,  however  great 
they  may  be  in  fact. 


76 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


More  and  more  forcibly  the  fact  is  borne  in 
upon  my  mind  that  the  ability  to  combine  is  a 
rare  one.  Beauty  is  such  a  wayward  element, 
so  appealing,  so  selfish,  and,  withal,  so  jealous. 
Even  among  those  who  are  fully  sensible  that  a 
color,  a  design  in  paper,  paint,  or  fabric,  that  is 
intrinsically  lovely,  may  become  hideous  if  not 
harmoniously  placed,  few  can  resist  the  tempta- 
tion to  adopt  a  beautiful  thing  because  it  is  beau- 
tiful, without  considering  the  weightier  matter 
of  fitness. 

I  often  think  of  the  ingenious  painter  who, 
finding  no  perfect  model  of  the  human  face,  but, 
as  he  supposed,  perfect  features  scattered  about 
and  misplaced,  conceived  the  sublime  idea  of 
composing  a  face  by  borrowing  the  heavenly 
eyes  of  one,  the  bewitching  nose  of  another, 
the  rapturous  mouth  of  a  third,  and  so  on,  con- 
cealing the  features  as  soon  as  they  were 
painted  until  the  whole  countenance  should  be 


BLINDS.—  WOOD  vs.  PAINT. 


77 


complete.  When  at  last  this  eclectic  production 
was  unveiled,  the  revelation  was  so  horrible  that 
the  poor  painter  fainted  at  the  woful  sight. 

I  like  to  show  my  box  of  samples  of  wood  to 
enthusiastic  lovers  of  such  things,  listen  to  their 
exclamations  of  delight,  and  hear  them  long 
to  have  a  whole  house  finished  with  something 
that  would  throw  them  into  convulsions  if  their 
wishes  could  be  gratified. 


THE  FOURTH  DAY. 


WALL-PAINTING  AND  PAPER-HANGINGS. 

HIS  has  been  one  of  the  "  red  letter  " 
days.  Business  called  me  to  Mecca, 
and  I  improved  the  opportunity  to  re- 
plenish my  stock  of  ideas  by  waiting  upon  the 
prophet.  Since  we  are  not  all  possessed  of  posi- 
tive genius,  it  would  be  a  happy  thing  if  the 
uninspired  were  wise  enough  to  follow  the  brill- 
iant lights  that  are  steadily  burning  in  various 
places.  There  is  one  such  illuminating  shrine 
in  Worcester.  When  all  other  arguments  and 
illustrations  fail  to  convince  an  obtuse  cHent 
that  simplicity,  honesty,  good  taste,  economy, 
and  originality  are  still  possible  in  this  effete 


WALL-PAINTING  AND  PAPER-HANGINGS.  79 


and  sinful  world,  I  send  him  on  a  pilgrimage  to 
that  city.  The  prophet  suffers  from  these  visi- 
tations, but  I  am  persuaded  that  the  world  will 
be  the  better  for  them,  and  unhesitatingly  sacri- 
fice my  friend  on  the  altar  of  domestic  art. 

I  found  the  prophet  hard  at  work,  a  sure  sign, 
by  the  way,  that  he  is  genuine,  and  not  one  of 
the  false  kind  of  whom  we  are  promised  so 
many  in  these  latter  days.  Some  people  have 
a  notion  that  the  mission  of  prophets  is  to  preach 
and  prophesy,  tell  what  ought  to  be,  and  what, 
if  nothing  else  happens,  possibly  will  be,  but 
never  to  put  their  own  shoulders  to  the  wheel ; 
all  of  which  is  a  mistake.  The  true  prophet  is 
not  only  without  honor  among  his  kindred,  — 
he  does  not  even  suspect  himself  of  inspiration. 
He  is  too  busy  with  works  to  be  talking  about 
his  faith.  He  wears  an  old  blouse  and  an  aw- 
fully dirty  pair  of  pantaloons,  and  shows  how 
things  ought  to  be  done  by  doing  them  himself 


8o 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


At  least,  that  is  the  state  in  which  I  found  my 
prophet  to-day,  and  my  time  was  devoted  to  a 
study  of  his  work,  having  in  mind  certain  am- 
bitious young  women  who  possess  more  time 
and  talents  than  they  can  profitably  employ, 
and  which  is,  therefore,  given  up  to  croquet, 
flirtation,  flounces,  and  other  satanic  devices 
whereby  the  rising  generation  are  being  led  to 
perdition. 

My  first  inspection  was  of  the  staircase  hall. 
The  entire  walls  of  this,  which  are  of  ordinary 
plastering,  have  been  painted  a  pale,  rather  a 
peculiar  shade  of  blue,  with  common  oil  paint. 
At  the  time  of  my  arrival  the  prophet  was  deco- 
rating the  wall  opposite  the  balustrade,  and  to 
about  the  same  height,  with  a  succession  of  im- 
panelled pictures  following  the  ascent  of  the 
stairs.  The  panels  have  a  black  field  with  a  bor- 
der of  buff,  and  upon  each  one  is  depicted  in 
monochrome  a  blue  stork  standing  on  one  leg, 


WALL-PAINTING  AND  PAPER-HANGINGS.  83 


—  as  becomes  a  careful  fowl  who  is  afraid  of 
wetting  his  feet  —  among  buff  reeds.  Above  the 
wood  capping  at  the  top  of  the  painted  panels 
is  a  stencilled  border  of  buff  and  blue,  and  the 
spaces  between  the  stork  pictures  have  the  same 
blue  ground,  bestrewn  with  stencilled  geometric 
figures.  At  the  top  of  the  room  is  a  buff  frieze 
with  blue  figures  showing  through.  The  wall- 
screen  is  quite  covered  over  with  a  vine  pattern 
conventionalized  after  Eastlake;  that  is  to  say, 
it  is  a  graceful,  leafy  vine,  but  composed  wholly 
of  rectangles  and  right-angled  triangles.  This 
is  also  in  monochrome,  a  darker  shade  of  blue 
than  the  wall  surface. 

All  this,  and  much  more,  the  prophet  has  done 
with  his  own  hands.  Of  course  it  has  taken 
time,  patience,  and  genius,  —  I  forgot,  genius  is 
patience,  —  but  being  done  it  is  as  permanent  as 
an  old  master,  which,  I  have  no  doubt,  it  will 
one  day  be  reckoned.    The  prophet,  as  it  appears. 


84 


f 

HOME  INTERIORS. 


does  not  approve  of  calcimine,  distemper,  or 
water  colors,  for  the  excellent  reason  that  the 
cost  of  material  for  either  water  or  oil  colors  is 
a  small  matter  compared  with  the  labor  involved. 
The  latter  once  appUed  will  remain  as  long  as 
any  reasonable  mortal  would  wish  to  abide  in  an 
earthly  dwelling,  while  the  former  is  easily  dis- 
figured, and,  if  defaced,  restored  with  difficulty. 

In  the  dining-room  the  wall-screen  is  a  sort 
of  buff  brown  with  a  dark  red  figure  stencilled 
upon  it.  The  dado,  a  dark  red,  with  panels  of 
very  bright,  very  prim,  very  stiff,  and  jolly-look- 
ing red  squirrels  in  vis-a-vis  pairs,  with  roseate 
borders  in  the  same  colors  marking  the  panels. 
Egyptian  lilies  in  red  and  umber  shading,  with 
an  occasional  dash  of  white,  and  in  the  most 
dignified  and  Pharaonic  attitudes,  form  the  frieze, 
which  is  perhaps  eighteen  inches  or  two  feet 
wide.  When  I  asked  the  prophet  if  this  wide 
frieze  did  not  make  the  room  look  low,  solemnly 


STENCILS. 


WALL-PAINTING  AND  PAPER-HANGINGS.  3/ 


he  answered  :  "  '  An  high  look  and  a  proud  heart 
and  the  ploughing  of  the  wicked  is  sin.'  If  I 
were  going  to  build  a  cathedral,  a  state-house 
dome,  or  any  other  grand  affair  by  whose  propor- 
tions I  wished  to  produce  an  overpowering  effect, 
I  should  build  as  high  as  I  could  reach,  in  fact, 
and  double  the  height  in  appearance  if  possible. 
When  a  room  of  five  or  six  yards  square  is  high 
enough  for  comfort  and  convenience,  who,  that 
hath  a  good  understanding,  an  upright  soul,  and 
a  chastened  spirit,  would  care  whether  it  ap- 
peared to  be  high  or  low  t "  I  was  much  im- 
pressed by  the  text  and  by  the  prophet's  dis- 
course. The  question  which  I  asked  him  has 
been  hurled  at  me  in  one  form  or  another, 
sometimes  as  an  inquiry,  oftener  as  an  assertion, 
about  five  thousand  times,  and  they  who  ask 
seem  to  rest  in  an  immovable  faith  that  the 
first  duty  of  a  human  apartment  is  to  look  as 
"  high  "  as  possible.    They  would  pay  tithe  of 


88 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


mint,  anise,  and  cummin,  disregarding  the 
weightier  matters  of  harmonious  proportion  and 
thoughtful  adaptation  to  legitimate  use. 

The  billiard-room  I  noticed  (the  prophet  plays 
an  excellent  game),  because  both  paper  and  paint 
are  used  on  the  walls.  The  dado,  an  innocent 
pattern  in  large  checks,  six  or  eight  inches 
square,  alternate  red  and  brown,  each  having  a 
simple  figure  of  the  opposite  color,  is  painted  on 
a  plastered  wall.  Above  this  there  is  a  screen 
of  the  most  astounding  Chinese  paper,  display- 
ing all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow  and  all  the 
forms  of  the  antipodes.  Still  above  this  a  wide 
but  serene  frieze,  also  of  paper. 

In  other  rooms  I  found  other  combinations  of 
paper  and  paint,  the  paint  being,  most  appropri- 
ately, near  the  floor,  where  it  is  exposed  to  the 
soiling  influences  so  damaging  to  paper.  Of 
course,  paint  on  plastered  walls  is  by  no  means 
invulnerable,  being  especially  liable  to  fatal  as- 


WOOD,   PAPER,  AND  PAINT. 


WALL-PAINTING  AND  PAPER-HANGINGS.      9 1 


sault  from  the  sharp  corners  of  chair-backs. 
Hence  the  imperative  need  of  a  band  of  wood 
at  the  right  height  to  receive  the  brunt  of  these 
attacks.  Of  course,  too,  a  wainscot  of  wood  is 
often  desirable,  but,  as  before  mentioned,  my  in- 
terest to-day  has  been  in  behalf  of  a  certain  class 
of  work  and  a  certain  class  of  workers. 

If  I  were  not  weakly  and  wickedly  cumbered 
with  much  serving,  I  would  at  once  make  a  pious 
missionary  of  myself,  and  use  all  the  eloquence 
at  my  command  to  induce  a  company  of  pilgrims 
to  put  peas  in  their  shoes  and  start  on  foot  for 
Worcester,  then  and  there  to  learn  how  it  is  pos- 
sible to  make  a  house  homelike,  interesting,  beau- 
tiful, by  the  thought  of  one  brain  and  the  labor 
of  one  pair  of  hands.  (I  ought,  in  justice,  to  say 
two  brains  and  two  pairs  of  hands  that  think  and 
act  as  one.)  I  do  not  say  that  the  work  of  the 
prophet  is  perfect,  that  the  style  he  has  adopted, 
the  colors  he  has  combined,  the  forms  he  has 


92 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


chosen,  are  the  best  possible  ;  in  order  to  say  that 
I  must  know  more  than  any  one  ever  did,  or  ever 
can  know.  But  one  thing  is  certain  :  this  home, 
this  temple,  —  if  a  more  sacred  temple  than  a 
perfect  home  can  be  found,  I  should  like  to  see 
it,  —  has  this  rare  power  ;  its  glory  is  contagious, 
it  communicates  satisfaction  and  delight,  it  kills 
envy.  Better  than  all  else,  —  and  here  comes 
the  demonstration  of  true  prophecy,  —  it  stirs  a 
consciousness  of  inspiration,  it  arouses  not  only 
the  desire,  but  a  sense  of  power  to  go  and  do 
likewise. 

My  flock  of  pilgrims  will  doubtless  protest  that 
they  cannot  draw  and  paint  and  choose  colors,  like 
the  prophet,  even  if  they  had  the  time, -—and, 
very  likely,  most  of  them  cannot ;  but  it  does  not 
require  half  as  much  training  of  mind  or  muscle 
to  paint  a  piece  of  wood  or  plastering  in  a  plain 
color  as  it  does  to  make  tatting.  It  is  as  easy 
to  choose  colors  for  a  dado  and  a  frieze  as  for 


WALL-PAINTING  AND  PAPER-HANGINGS.  95 


a  belt  or  neck-ribbon.  The  patterns  that  are 
most  satisfactory  are  usually  the  most  simple 
and  most  simply  arranged,  while  as  for  the  ne- 
cessary time  —  my  patience  !  to  think  how  long 
it  takes  to  put  one  row  of  trimming,  say  "  box 
plaiting"  (that  is  the  only  kind  of  dress-trimming 
I  know  by  name),  on  a  long  trailed  dress,  and 
then  to  think  how  long  it  lasts  before  it  is  ripped 
off  and  something  else  put  on  !  But  this  wall- 
trimming  will  last  for  generations,  and  it  is  art, 
too,  not  fashion. 

It  is  strange  how  few  have  learned  the  solid 
satisfaction  of  working  toward  an  ideal,  in  doing 
a  little  at  a  time,  but  doing  that  little  so  well 
that  it  is  a  constant  joy,  adding,  as  the  time 
comes  for  it,  one  feature  after  another,  steadily 
advancing  toward  a  goal  that  may  never  be 
reached,  but  by  a  route  so  charming  that  the 
end  is  quite  forgotten. 

By  way  of  practical,  matter-of-fact  illustration, 


96 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


take  any  family  sitting-room  having  the  usual 
plain  casings  and  a  bare  plastered  wall.  In  the 
first  place  the  band  of  wood  to  protect  the  plas- 
tering from  the  sharp  elbows  of  the  furniture 
must  be  put  around  the  room.  This  may  be 
like  the  rest  of  the  wood-work.  It  may  be 
painted  black,  or  of  unpainted  hard  wood  ;  it 
may  be  absolutely  plain  and  flat ;  it  may  have 
bevelled  or  rounded  edges  ;  it  may  have  simple 
grooves  in  the  face  of  it,  or  incised  figures  to 
be  brought  out  with  bright  colors.  Whatever 
it  is,  any  carpenter's  shop  will  furnish  it  for  a 
few  cents  a  foot,  and  an  ordinary  workman  can 
put  it  up  in  a  few  hours.  This  with  the  base- 
boards at  the  bottom  and  the  door  and  window 
casings,  against  which  it  stops,  forms  the  frame 
of  the  dado.  If  vertical  bars  are  inserted  sub- 
dividing the  long  spaces  into  short  panels,  the 
labor  is  somewhat  increased.  The  next  thing 
is  to  paint  the  plastering  underneath  the  chair- 


WALL-PAINTING  AND  PAPER-HANGINGS.  97 


rail  the  chosen  color,  which  may  be  borrowed 
from  the  latest  fashions  in  dress-goods,  from 
out-door  hues  of  earth  and  sky,  or  taken  from 
a  sample  card  of  colors  or  Owen  Jones's  Gram- 
mar of  Ornament.  If  the  first  coat  is  not  satis- 
factory in  shades,  the  second  —  for  two  will  be 
needed  —  can  be  changed. 

Even  if  the  work  thus  far  absorbs  all  the 
spare  time  and  funds  of  a  whole  year,  it  will 
be  well  worth  doing.  The  next  spring  get  at  a 
bookstore  some  oiled  paper,  such  as  artists  use 
for  sketching,  select  a  pretty  pattern  for  a  border, 
—  or  design  one,  —  trace  it  on  the  paper,  cut  it 
out,  and  stencil  it  above  the  base  and  below  the 
chair-rail.  A  darker  shade  of  the  first  color  will 
always  be  safe  for  this,  a  contrasting  color  may 
be  more  effective.  Divide  the  dado  into  panels 
with  the  same,  if  there  are  no  vertical  bars  of 
wood  ;  if  there  are,  carry  it  up  each  side  of  them. 
This  will  occupy  another  year,  maybe,  and  mean- 


98 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


while  the  room  and  its  occupants  are  growing 
in  grace  together.  On  another  sheet  of  the  oiled 
paper,  or  the  same  one  if  it  is  big  enough,  let  the 
prettiest  design  possible  be  drawn,  —  it  may  not 
be  very  pretty,  but  the  prettiest  possible.  It  is 
better  to  have  loved  and  lost  than  never  to  have 
loved  at  all.  One  who  is  especially  rich  in  fancy 
may  have  a  different  picture  upon  each  panel, 
but  it  is  not  necessary,  and  the  more  formal  they 
are  the  better  they  will  "  wear."  Let  the  dogs 
have  square  toes  and  block  heads  ;  let  the  curves 
of  the  owls'  wings  and  the  peacocks'  tails  be 
angular,  and  the  leaves  of  the  lilies  be  drawn  by 
square  and  compass.  Abjure  all  attempts  at 
shading  and  perspective  effect.  This  makes 
another  year. 

A  wood  moulding  at  the  bottom  of  the  frieze 
will  be  the  next  detail,  and  during  the  selection 
and  application  of  the  paper  above  this,  another 
annual   revolution  will   be  accomplished,  after 


SQUARE  TOES. 


WALL-PAINTING  AND  PAPER-HANGINGS.  lOI 


which  nothing  remains  but  to  hang  upon  the 
rest  of  the  wall  surface  some  one  of  the  beautiful 
paper-hangings,  which,  thanks  to  the  Kensington 
Art  Museum,  are  now  within  the  reach  of  every- 
body, designs  really  and  truly  artistic  in  color 
and  pattern.  I  discovered  one  day  in  rummaging 
for  papers  what  was  new  to  me,  but,  possibly, 
familiar  to  others,  —  that  paper-hangings  are 
made  in  plain  oil  tints  which  the  dealers  solemnly 
swear  are  as  impervious  to  injury  as  actual  paint, 
that  they  can  be  daubed  with  boot-blacking, 
streaked  with  bread-and-butter  fingers,  sub- 
jected in  fact  to  any  indignity  in  the  way  of  dirt, 
and  still,  by  a  judicious  use  of  hot  soap-suds,  be 
brought  out  as  bright  and  smiling  as  a  freshly 
washed  school-boy.  I  cannot,  in  honor,  doubt  the 
statement,  and,  if  it  is  true,  see  no  reason  why 
such  paper  may  not  be  used  as  a  background  for 
painted  decoration,  and  have  some  advantages 
over  the  painted  plastering,  especially  for  those 


102 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


to  whom  painting  with  a  big  brush  seems  a  large 
undertaking. 

Of  course  energetic  souls  will  say  months, 
weeks,  days,  instead  of  years,  but  there  are  many 
homes  that  would  rejoice  at  such  results  even 
after  the  longest  period.  It  is  sheer  folly  for 
people  who  do  not  work  more  than  twelve  hours 
a  day,  who  smoke  as  much  as  once  a  week,  who 
are  able  to  buy  more  than  two  calico  dresses  or 
one  new  bonnet  in  a  year,  who  can  write  their 
own  names,  and  send  their  children  to  the  public 
school  till  they  are  twelve  years  old,  to  pretend 
that  they  have  not  the  time,  ability,  or  means  to 
gratify  a  taste  for  such  home  decoration  as  I  have 
suggested,  and  which  has  led  me  quite  away  from 
my  description  of  the  temple  and  its  prophet ;  a 
description  whose  continuation  must  be  deferred 
to  a  more  convenient  season,  for  I  am,  in  truth, 
grievously  cumbered  as  aforesaid. 


FIFTH  DAY. 


DOORS  AND  SCREENS. 

]EAR  SIR,  —  Please  send  plans  for  doors, 
j  and  give  me  something,  if  you  can,  besides 
J  the  old,  old  pattern  that  must  have  been  in 
use  ever  since  straight  lines  and  square  corners  were 
invented.  I  don't  care  what  they  are  if  they  are  only 
doors. 

Yours, 

"  Warwick." 
As  usual,  Warwick  hits  the  nail  on  the  head. 
If  I  should  ever  be  sat  upon  by  coroners,  I  think 
the  verdict  will  be  "  died  of  doors."  They  are 
my  bete  7toir.  They  worry  me  beyond  measure. 
The  square,  stiff,  selfish,  inhospitable,  uncompro- 
mising things  !    Harsh  in  character  and  ugly  in 


I04 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


design.  They  always  suggest  the  telegraphic  al- 
phabet, —  a  long  panel  and  a  short  one,  one  short 
and  two  long,  two  shorts  and  one  long,  three 
shorts,  a  short  between  two  longs,  a  long  between 
two  shorts,  and  so  forth,  ad  infinittim.  Then 
they  are  so  heavy  and  obtrusive,  if  wide  enough 
to  allow  two  well-dressed  persons  to  pass  through 
abreast,  which  they  seldom  are.  Why,  when  I 
was  married,  the  whole  bridal  party  were  com- 
pelled to  enter  the  parlor  in  single  file,  like  an 
army  of  vanquished  barbarians  passing  under  a 
Roman  yoke.  Of  course  no  such  comparison 
entered  my  unsophisticated  soul  at  that  time,  but 
I  could  not  help  stepping  on  the  bridal  veil,  — 
unless  I  had  waited  for  the  next  train,  —  and 
nobody  knows  what  disaster  might  follow  such 
a  blunder  committed  under  circumstances  less 
critical  and  absorbing.  To  be  sure,  that  was  in 
the  days  of  expansive  skirts,  a  fashion  liable  to 
return  at  any  moment. 


□1 

1    II   II  1 

1       II      II  1 

□  L  

□nn 

II  1 

ill  ILJ 

1  1  1  1  1  1 

II  1 

III  III 

III                 1  1  1 

III                1  1  1 

1      II  II  1 

1      1 1  1 1  1 

f           II    1  1  1 
1           1  1    1  1  1 

1  II 

1        II  1 

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DOORS  AND  SCREENS. 


107 


To  be  more  explicit,  a  swinging  door,  three  or 
three  and  a  half  feet  wide,  monopolizes  thirty  or 
forty  square  feet  of  wall  space,  and  from  fifteen 
to  twenty  square  feet  of  floor  room.  If  it  is  four, 
five,  or  six  feet  wide,  as  it  often  ought  to  be,  how 
much  is  there  left  on  the  side  of  a  sixteen-feet 
room  for  furniture  or  pictures  ?  If  there  happen 
to  be  two  or  three  such  doors, —  I  Ve  seen  small 
rooms  with  half  a  dozen,  —  "  kept  in-doors  "  de- 
scribes the  condition  of  the  inmates  most  accu- 
rately. To  speak  mathematically,  five  three-feet 
doors  opening  into  a  room  fifteen  feet  square, 
cover,  absorb,  sequestrate,  and  totally  demoralize 
just  thirty-three  per  cent  of  the  whole  apartment. 

Thirdly,  they  are  so  intensely  "  wooden."  In 
an  elegant  drawing-room  where  fine  rich  dra- 
peries, delicate  ornaments,  and  rare  paintings 
abound,  can  anything  be  more  grotesque  than 
to  see  the  owner  complacently  point  at  the  huge 
proportions,  the  monstrous  mouldings,  and  the 


I08  HOME  INTERIORS. 

gold-plated  trimmings  of  a  pair  of  mahogany,  or 
rosewood  doors,  as  if  these  big  barricades,  with 
the  long  and  short  panels  in  rectangular  triplets, 
were  a  sublime  work  of  art  hardly  second  to  the 
bronze  doors  of  the  Capitol  ?  As  a  matter  of  fact 
their  sole  claim  to  notice  anywhere  consists  in 
their  sound  workmanship,  their  carefully  polished 
surfaces,  and  the  amount  of  wood  they  contain 
at  twenty-five  cents  per  square  foot,  —  qualities 
that  would  indeed  appear  to  great  advantage  in 
the  shop  where  they  were  made,  and  give  great 
satisfaction  to  the  man  who  invented  the  ma- 
chine that  made  them.  As  rivals  to  a  fine  land- 
scape in  oil,  an  engraving,  or  even  a  family 
portrait,  these  six  panels  of  "  French  burl "  are 
an  impertinent  intrusion  ;  especially  if  the  picture 
must  hang  behind  the  door  or  be  left  to  moulder 
in  the  garret  because  there  is  no  room  for  it 
below. 

My  advice  to  Warwick  is,  firstly,  to  bestow 


DOORS  AND  SCREENS. 


some  of  his  doors  upon  the  missionary  society, 
and  substitute  for  his  own  use  heavy  curtains. 
These  to  be  used  for  doors  of  communication 
between  chambers  en  suite,  for  closets,  or  for 
other  situations  where  the  impassable  barrier 
is  not  necessary.  Secondly,  to  let  those  doors 
that  are  usually  open  slide  into  the  walls,  and 
for  the  sake  of  furnishing  and  for  occasional 
use  as  a  screen,  provide  hangings  as  charming 
and  elegant  as  his  taste  and  purse  will  allow. 
If  the  opening  to  be  covered  is  not  more  than 
seven  feet  by  nine,  these  will  cost  from  four 
dollars  upward,  and  if  contrived  to  move  side- 
ways or  rise  and  fall  easily,  I  fancy  the  sliding 
doors  will  very  rarely  be  drawn  from  their  hid- 
ing-places. If  they  are  tolerably  heavy  —  if  they 
are  not  they  can  easily  be  "  padded  "  with  coarse 
blankets  —  these  curtains  will  be  found  as  perfect 
a  protection  against  changes  of  temperature  as 
the  heaviest  door  that  ever  grated  on  its  hinges. 


112 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


The  outer  doors  will  take  care  of  themselves. 
They  are  properly  intended  as  a  strong  defence 
against  unwelcome  intrusion  from  without.  But 
for  tornadoes,  tramps,  burglars,  gossips,  mad  dogs, 
and  other  vicious  beasts,  our  dwellings  might  be 
as  free  from  doors  as  a  Bedouin's  tent.  Since  we 
must  at  least  have  outer  doors,  they  should  be 
made  to  appear  what  they  are  and  to  show  their 
strength.  There  is,  surely,  no  good  reason  for 
making  the  entrance  door  of  a  private  house 
consist  chiefly  of  plate  glass,  as  though  its  chief 
end  were  to  display  as  much  as  possible  of  the 
interior  in  the  manner  of  a  milliner's  shop  or  a 
licensed  beer-saloon.  Yet  a  limited  amount  of 
glass,  especially  if  in  small  lights,  may  emphasize 
the  appearance  of  solidity.  Neither  does  there 
seem  to  be  good  sense  in  setting  a  solid  door 
within  a  border  of  glass  ;  it  makes  it  appear  too 
small  for  the  aperture.  I  acknowledge  a  senti- 
mental fancy  for  a  wide,  low,  single  front-door. 


A  STRONG 


DEFENXE. 


DOORS  AND  SCREENS. 


cut  in  two  horizontally,  by  which  means  the 
upper  half  may  be  opened  while  the  lower  re- 
mains closed,  in  the  fashion  of  the  good  old  times 
when  it  was  necessary  to  keep  the  babies  from 
creeping  out  and  the  dogs  from  coming  in. 
Nowadays  the  babies,  what  few  there  are,  are 
too  well  bred  to  creep  on  all-fours  in  the  front 
hall,  and,  even  if  any  one  wished  to  open  a  part 
of  the  door,  there  must  be  a  fly-screen  on  the 
spot,  which  spoils  the  pleasant  effect  of  the 
hospitable  opening.  So  I  suppose  this  kind  of 
double  doors  must  be  set  down  as  a  vain  pro- 
test against  the  prosaic  present  by  a  bald  imita- 
tion of  the  poetic  but  inconvenient  past. 

For  the  needful  inner  doors,  the  stout  frames, 
technically  speaking  the  "  stiles,"  must  be  straight 
and  rectangular,  but  instead  of  the  telegraphic- 
alphabet  panels,  I  have  given  Warwick  a  screen 
of  narrow  sheathing,  matched  and  bevelled,  not 
beaded,  with  irregular  and  somewhat  decorated 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


bars  crossing  it  in  the  direction  of  strength,  and 
have  made  a  small,  plain  panel,  or  shield,  in 
one  corner,  to  be  decorated  in  bright  colors. 

The  intense 


"  woodenness  " 
of  the  unpaint- 
ed  doors  may 
be  further  miti- 
gated by  paint- 
ing the  bevels, 
the  chamfers, 
grooves,  or  any 
notchings  or 
incised  work, 
with  bright, 
honest  colors. 

Since  the 
making  of  plain 
panelled  doors 
has  been  reduced  to  such  a  simple,  mechanical 


OHByHiaiUfli  0 


fill''. 

§ 

A  DOOR. 

CAUTIOUS  BUT  NOT  CONVENIENT, 


DOORS  AND  SCREENS. 


119 


operation  that  a  door  one  and  a  half  inches  thick, 
three  feet  by  seven  and  a  half  feet,  can  be  made 
of    the  best 


stock  and  in  the 
most  perfect 
manner  for  a 
dollar  and  a 
half,  it  cannot 
be  reckoned  an 
unreasonable 
extravagance  to 
add  a  few  dol- 
lars' worth  of 
interest  and  va- 
riety to  this 
necessarily  con- 
spicuous piece 
of  furniture. 


■Si 

^  \'  \ '  / 

(lb- 

ANOTHER  DOOR 


For  furniture  it  is,  and  it  never  will  receive 
justice  until  this  fact  is  recognized.    A  pretty 


I20 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


and  effective  treatment  consists  in  making  all 

the  upper  part  of 
\\         the  door  within  the 


li 


SCREEN  ABOVE. 


stiles  in  one  large 
panel  of  plain  un- 
finished wood,  the 
stiles  being  in  such 
form  that  an  in- 
dependent frame 
covered  with  some 
fabric,  either  orna- 
mental in  itself 
or  susceptible  of 
decoration,  can  be 
set  in,  covering 
the  bare  wood. 
This  movable 
screen  can  be 
taken    out  and 


repaired  or  changed,  if  need  be,  and  of  course 


ONE  OF  Warwick's. 


DOORS  AND  SCREEiVS. 


123 


the  opposite  side  of  the  door  may  be  made  as 
solid  and  stupidly  conventional  as  the  most 
punctilious  could  desire. 

I  wonder  that  screens,  pure  and  simple,  are 
not  more  often  found  among  the  furniture  of  our 
common  rooms,  both  for  ornament  and  use.  A 
plain,  rectangular  frame  made  of  any  clear, 
hard-wood  board  three  or  four  inches  wide 
and  one  inch  thick,  furnished  with  feet  to  main- 
tain its  upright  position,  and  either  with  or 
without  casters,  is  all  the  wood-work  required. 
For  covering  this  a  great  variety  of  materials  may 
be  used :  paper,  common  cotton  cloth,  brown 
linen,  linen  tracing-cloth  (for  transparencies), 
crashes,  canvas,  cretonnes,  damasks,  silks,  satins, 
and  velvet.  Upon  these  may  be  pasted,  painted, 
sketched,  traced,  stitched,  embroidered,  embossed, 
or  otherwise  applied,  attached,  and  depicted  in 
paper,  ink,  paint,  in  worsted  or  silk,  in  beads, 
bugles,  or  buttons,  in  threads  of  silver  and  gold. 


124  HOME  INTERIORS. 

works  and  devices  that  may  be  executed  in  an 
hour  or  occupy  the  leisure  of  a  year.  If  the 
frame  is  made  in  two  or  three  vertical  parts, 
folding  one  upon  the  other,  the  understanding 
feet  will  not  be  necessary,  and  the  whole  affair 
can  be  more  snugly  banished  whenever  its  room 
happens  to  be  more  valuable  than  its  company. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  many  uses  for  which 
such  screens  may  be  employed  :  Keeping  the 
midday  sun  from  an  exposed  spot  in  a  favorite 
carpet  without  excluding  his  beneficent  beams 
from  the  room,  protecting  sensitive  "  neuralgists  " 
from  perilous  drafts  of  air  by  day  or  night,  shad  - 
ing from  gas  or  sunlight  weak  and  weary  eyes, 
temporarily  closing  draped  openings  that  have 
no  doors  and  prefer  to  have  none  because  there 
is  no  room  for  them  to  swing  or  slide,  concealing 
a  door  that  is  not  often  used,  but  which  cannot 
be  permanently  abolished,  dividing  a  large  room 
into  two  parts  when  it  happens  that  two  small 


BROWN  LINEN  BACKGROUND. 


DOORS  AND  SCREENS. 


127 


chambers  will  hold  more  people  than  one  large 
one,  or  fencing  in  a  corner  of  the  hall  for  those 
emergencies  that  are  constantly  occurring  in  hos- 
pitable families.  And  what  a  paradise  could  be 
made  in  one  corner  of  the  sitting-room  for  the 
little  folks !  What  warehouses  and  museums ; 
what  pavilions  and  palaces  for  playing  at  house- 
keeping and  in  other  ways  delightfully  antici- 
pating the  trials  and  tribulations  of  grown-up 
life.  Even  if  many  days  were  consumed  in  fab- 
ricating them,  two  or  three  such  delicate,  mova- 
ble partitions  would  prove  an  unlimited  resource 
in  the  way  of  leisure  time  to  any  mother  upon 
whom  rests  the  sacred  duty  of  caring  for  a  family 
of  children. 

Saide  has  just  finished  a  screen  made  from  a 
breadth  of  an  old  brown  linen  duster,  smoothly 
stretched  upon  a  walnut  frame.  Its  decoration 
consists  of  figures  cut  from  bright-colored  cre- 
tonnes, arranged  in  original  and  thoroughly  artis- 


128 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


tic  designs,  and  simply  stitched  upon  the  linen. 
Of  course  its  chief  excellence  lies  in  the  skill 
and  feeling  with  which  these  pretty  patterns  are 
selected  and  arranged.  This  being  well  done, 
the  whole  affair  is  a  most  successful  rival  of  the 
beautiful  Oriental  screens  that  are  now  so  famous 
and  familiar.  Its  practical  office  is  to  hide  the 
refrigerator  in  the  dining-room,  but  its  beauty 
is  its  own  excuse  for  being,  and  no  one  thinks 
of  asking  what  is  behind  it. 


SIXTH  DAY. 


CASINGS,  CAPS,  AND  WINDOW  SEATS. 

"  Lord,  what  a  thoughtless  wretch  was  I, 
To  mourn  and  murmur  and  repine,"  — 

as  I  did  only  last  week,  on  account  of  the  trials 
of  my  profession  !  It  must  have  been  the  result 
of  a  dyspeptic  attack,  for  when  I  am  well-dressed 
and  in  my  right  mind  my  work  is  a  delight  to 
me,  with  only  this  cause  for  grief :  the  actual 
performance  falls  sadly  below  the  ideal  concep- 
tion. The  combined  perplexities,  the  unexpected 
and  unreasonable  requirements,  the  meagre  and 
doubtful  pecuniary  recompense,  are  mere  passing 
shadows  over  the  sunny  delight  of  artistic  crea- 
tion.   In  this,  as  in  all  human  affairs,  no  man 


130 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


liveth  unto  himself.  While  it  is,  indeed,  an  irk- 
some task  to  try  to  satisfy  the  Wandering  Jew, 
this  light  affliction  vanisheth  before  the  exceed- 
ing satisfaction  of  striving  in  behalf  of  a  fellow- 
man  of  cultured  thought  and  the  instincts  of  a 
gentleman.  St.  Augustine  is  one  of  these,  the 
colonel  is  another.  Without  intentionally  wan- 
dering from  the  path  of  impartial  duty,  the  per- 
formance rises  more  nearly  to  the  sublimity  of 
the  conception,  for  such  —  of  whom  is  the  king- 
dom of  Heaven  —  than  for  the  more  grovelling 
and  earthly-minded. 

The  Colonel  came  up  to-day  with  the  designs 
for  his  door  and  window  casings,  which  are  not 
quite  satisfactory,  through  lack  of  originality. 
Now,  there  are  persons  who  stand  in  mortal 
terror  of  anything  original,  seeming  to  consider 
it  all  in  the  family  —  first  cousin  at  least  —  with 
original  sin.  Others  delight  in  nothing  else. 
It  is  a  mistake,  by  the  way,  to  suppose  there  is 


CASINGS,  CAPS,  AND  WINDOW  SEATS.  131 


nothing  new  under  the  sun.  On  the  contrary, 
notwithstanding  our  inherited  apishness,  an  ex- 
act copy  of  anything  is  rarely  seen  ;  it 's  never 
found  nowadays  in  "  hand-work."  The  chief 
obstacles  to  newness  of  design  in  the  products 
of  the  nineteenth  century  are  the  inventions, 
wickedly  sought  out,  that  make  it  possible  to 
reproduce  by  the  million  fac-similes  of  every 
manufactured  article  on  the  face  of  the  earth 
that  happens  to  fill  a  popular  want  or  strike 
the  popular  fancy. 

The  Colonel  wishes  to  exclude  "  mill  mould- 
ings," that  have  been  in  use  ever  since  moulding- 
machines  were  invented. 

'  There  is  no  more  propriety,"  said  he,  "in 
making  all  the  door  and  window  frames  (he 
means  casings)  alike  than  there  would  be  in 
selecting  picture-frames  of  one  unvarying  style  ; 
no  more  reason  for  having  half  a  dozen  doors  of 
the  same  pattern,  than  in  hanging  half  a  dozen 


132 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


pictures  of  the  Yosemite  Valley.  Each  window 
discloses  a  picture,  a  magnificent  one,  and  the 
views  are  not  only  unlike  each  other,  but  each 
has  a  changing  beauty,  new  every  morning  and 
fresh  every  evening.  We  ought  to  learn  some- 
thing from  Nature's  infinite  variety.  A  reasona- 
ble conformity  in  style  is  all  right,  a  stupid  uni- 
formity all  wrong." 

It  makes  one  feel  like  a  second  Herod  to 
strangle  a  new-born  hope  of  so  much  promise ; 
but  what  could  I  do }  It  would  not  answer  to 
give  one  door  a  square  top,  its  right-hand  brother 
a  semicircle,  its  left-hand  sister  an  ellipse,  and 
its  neighbor  opposite  a  segment,  just  because 
a  spruce-tree  is  pointed,  an  elm  domed,  and  a 
pepperidge  flat  as  a  pancake  ;  neither  should  a 
beaded  casing  join  hands  with  one  that  is  cham- 
fered, or  carving  sit  in  close  communion  with  plain 
or  incised  surfaces.  The  Colonel  has  Nature  and 
logic  on  his  side,  but  in  the  middle  course  is 


VISIBLE  MEANS  OF  SUPPORT. 


CASINGS,  CAPS,  AND  WINDOW  SEATS.     1 35 


safety.  It  is  not  quite  fair  to  assign  the  same 
rank  to  the  window-casings  as  to  the  picture- 
frames,  though  the  former  may  seem  to  serve  a 
similar  purpose.  They  are  a  part  of  the  essential 
structure,  and  have  no  claim  to  be  considered 
decorative,  but  the  picture-frames,  although  not 
themselves  ornamental,  supplement  and  complete 
the  most  distinguished  decoration  in  the  room. 
It  is  only  requisite  that  the  window-frames  and 
other  related  work  shall  be  consistent,  honest  in 
construction,  and  not  obtrusive.  There  is  good 
reason  why  the  casings  at  the  sides  of  the  win- 
dows should  start  from  the  floor  or  from  the  base, 
even  when  they  are  entirely  plain.  They  give 
visible  means  of  support  to  the  whole  window, 
which  otherwise  has  the  appearance  of  being 
stuck  upon  the  face  of  the  plastering,  —  sus- 
pended midway  between  the  floor  and  the  ceil- 
ing. This  forms  a  panel  underneath,  which  may 
be  of  wood  or  plastered  like  the  rest  of  the  wall. 


136 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


The  Colonel  asked  whether  these  casings  and 
those  of  the  doors  might  not  extend  to  the  ceil- 
ing as  well.  To  which  there  can  be  no  objection, 
provided  there  is  a  belt  of  wood  around  the  top 
of  the  room  to  receive  them.  This  need  not  be 
an  elaborate  cornice  ;  a  mere  strip  a  few  inches 
wide  and  no  thicker  than  the  casings  themselves 
will  suffice.  Of  course  it  is  a  legitimate  subject 
for  decoration,  and  being  superior  in  position, 
should  not  be  inferior  in  quality.  From  this 
the  pictures  may  be  suspended,  or  a  subordinate 
band,  ten,  fifteen,  or  twenty  inches  below  it 
may  be  put  up  to  form  a  frieze  and  carry  the 
knobs  or  hooks  that  sustain  the  pictures.  This 
notion  also  found  favor  in  the  eyes  of  the  Colonel, 
and  instead  of  carrying  all  the  casings  to  the  top 
of  the  room,  he  decides  to  let  them  merely  rise 
above  this  subordinate  belt  or  architrave,  having 
a  decorated,  quaint,  or  fantastic  terminal,  and 
crossing  the  belt  in  such  a  manner  that  cracks 


FANTASTIC  HEADS. 


CASINGS,  CAPS,  AND  WINDOW  SEATS.      1 39 


will  not  be  opened  by  the  shrinking  of  the 
stock.  This  will  be  quite  right  provided  the 
space  between  the  two  horizontal  members  is 
fully  occupied  and  "  brought  out "  with  a  positive 
color,  or  a  conspicuous  decoration  of  some  sort. 
This  is  most  important,  otherwise  there  will 
seem  to  be  a  gap  in  the  wall-finish,  such  as,  to 
set  forth  great  things  by  small,  sometimes  appears 
when  a  little  boy's  stockings  are  too  short  at  the 
top  and  his  pantaloons  too  short  at  the  bottom. 

This  being  settled,  the  Colonel  introduced 
another  topic. 

I  want  and  must  have,"  said  he,  "  one  thing 
more,  for  which  you  have  no  provision,  namely, 
window-seats." 

"  The  walls  are  not  thick  enough." 

"  I 'm  aware  of  that,  but  they  can  be  made  so 
in  some  places,  and  in  others  the  seats  may  pro- 
ject into  the  room.  It  is  better  to  invest  six 
inches  more,  even  if  the  amount  must  be  taken 


I40  HOME  INTERIORS. 

from  the  capital  stock  of  the  room,  than  to  waste 
the  window-stool  already  on  hand.  A  well- 
cushioned  seat  by  the  window,  low  and  wide,  is 
always  popular,  and  none  the  less  so  because  it 
in  nowise  prevents  an  unlimited  indulgence  in 
easy-chairs  in  the  near  vicinity.  Where  these 
seats  project  into  the  room,  as  they  must  in 
some  cases,  I  have  a  fancy  that  the  curtains 
should  be  brought  out  over  them,  making  a  sort 
of  canopy,  and  reaching  quite  to  the  ceiling." 

"  Certainly  it  may,  but  this  will  totally  hide 
your  fantastic  little  heads." 

Precisely,  and  that  is  my  argument  for  making 
these  window-frames  (he  meant  casings  again) 
according  to  the  exigencies  of  the  case.  For 
instance,  this  wide  window  in  the  library  must 
have  the  permanent  seat  and  the  canopied  cur- 
tain or  lambrequin.  Every  vestige  of  the  wood- 
work will  be  as  completely  hidden  as  if  it  were 
behind  the  plastering.    Why,  then,  must  I  waste 


HELP  FOR  A  ROUGH  ROAD. 


♦ 


CASINGS,  CAPS,  AND  WINDOIV  SEATS.      1 43 


my  hard-earned  dollars  upon  it  ?  A  narrow, 
plain  piece  answers  every  purpose." 

"  But  the  canopied  curtain  is  not  a  fixed  fact ; 
you  may  change  your  mind." 

"  I  can't  change  my  mind  in  the  face  of  a 
mathematical  demonstration.  The  seat  is  indis- 
pensable, it  will  be  built  with  the  house.  The 
curtain  is  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  seat. 
If  such  cosey  and  retired  tete-a-tetes  were  more 
common,  the  course  of  true  love  would  n't  be  half 
as  rough  as  it  now  is." 

"  I 'm  also  aware  of  that.  But  the  man  to 
whom  you  sell  the  house  may  think  the  rough 
course  is  the  best,  or  have  other  good  reasons  for 
dispensing  with  the  drapery." 

"  I  shall  never  sell  the  house." 

"  Or  leave  it  to  your  sons  ? " 

"  Well,  well,  make  them  all  alike  if  you  must, 
but  as  simple  as  possible,  and  if  my  sons  see  fit 
to  disclose  the  nakedness  of  my  work  after  I 


144 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


am  gone,  it  will  be  at  their  own  peril  and  ex- 
pense." 

The  Colonel  touched  here  upon  what  is  to  me 
one  of  the  most  interesting  points  in  domestic  ar- 
chitecture. Usually  the  main  opportunity  for 
the  exercise  of  individual  taste  is  in  the  movable 
fixtures  of  the  house.  Even  when  a  man  feels 
certain,  humanly  speaking,  that  he  is  building  for 
his  own  permanent  abode,  the  thought  that  the 
house  may  pass  out  of  his  own  into  strange 
hands,  and  the  consideration  of  its  possible  value 
in  case  of  voluntary  or  compelled  sale,  deter  him 
from  indulging  in  any  personal  whims  and  fan- 
cies, which  would  make  it  more  really  and  truly 
his  own  than  it  can  possibly  be  by  the  mere  pay- 
ing of  the  bills.  Herein  lies  the  difference  be- 
tween a  house  and  a  home.  The  house  may  be 
sold,  the  home  never.  The  house  has  a  market 
value  which  is  the  same  to  one  man  as  to  an- 
other ;  the  home  is  above  all  price  to  him  who 


BUTTRESS  AND  BRACKETS. 


CASINGS,  CAPS,  AND  WINDOW  SEATS.      1 47 


creates  it  for  himself;  wiio  has  wrought  into  it 
a  part  of  his  own  personality. 

Blessed  are  they  who  have  homes. 

It  further  appeared  concerning  the  casings 
that  their  faces  need  not  always  be  clean  shaven, 
that  is,  in  the  same  vertical  plane  throughout. 
If  the  width  of  the  window-seat  or  the  thickness 
of  the  wainscot  or  base  requires  more  room,  the 
lower  part  may  be  augmented  in  buttress  fash- 
ion, or  they  may  be  brought  forward  at  the  top, 
—  not  by  way  of  ornamental  cap,  —  door  and 
window  casings  should  n't  wear  their  caps  in  the 
house,  —  but  in  the  form  of  brackets  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  rod  or  bar  that  carries  the  curtains  ; 
which  rod  or  bar  may  be  as  simple  as  a  broom- 
handle  or  gorgeous  as  an  Indian  diadem. 

The  provision  for  hanging  pictures,  which  was 
also  discussed,  is  a  matter  of  absolute  necessity 
in  these  artistic  times.  The  old  fashion  of 
pounding  the  plastering  all  around  the  room  to 


148 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


find  a  spot  that  gives  a  solid  sound,  then  punch- 
ing holes  with  a  scratch-awl  all  about  it,  in  the 
hope  of  finding  a  stud,  driving  a  nail  or  screwing 
a  screw  into  the  crack  between  two  springing 
laths  and  finally  trusting  a  heavy  gilt  frame  and 
a  big  sheet  of  glass  to  the  treacherous  support  of 
crumbling  mortar,  is  not  popular.  Neither  is  the 
older  fashion  of  nailing  a  "  cleat "  two  or  three 
feet  long  across  a  couple  of  studs  in  the  region 
where  the  one  picture  or  the  looking-glass  is  to 
be  set  up,  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  present 
generation.  How  many  pictures  will  bedeck  a 
room,  or  what  light  will  be  required  for  them, 
cannot  be  foretold.  Every  Christmas  brings  a 
new  one,  every  auction  sale  furnishes  a  "gem"  or 
a  "  bargain,"  for  which  a  place  must  be  found. 
Hence  the  need  of  an  unbroken  line  of  support. 
Instead  of  making  this  a  bald,  bare  necessity, 
obtrusively  stuck  up,  and  saying  as  plainly  as 
a  moulding  can  say,  "  I 'm  a  gallows  whereon 


A  LEAF  FROM  THE  PROPHET. 


CASINGS,  CAPS,  AND  WINDOW  SEATS.  151 


pictures  are  to  be  hanged,"  it  is  just  as  easy  and 
ten  times  more  delightful  to  make  it  a  compo- 
nent part  of  the  essential  work,  either  of  the 
constructive  casings  and  cornices,  or  of  the  color 
decoration,  or  of  both. 


SEVENTH  DAY. 


STAIRWAYS  AND  TILES. 

T  has  been  an  unfortunate  thing  for 
country  homes  that,  instead  of  devel- 
oping the  inconveniences  and  discom- 
forts of  old-fashioned  buildings  by  natural  growth, 
to  answer  the  needs  of  the  higher  civilization 
and  more  refined  demands  of  domestic  life  in 
the  present  time,  many  of  the  most  important 
attempts  at  improvement  have  been  blind  imi- 
tations of  city  dwellings.  Customs  and  styles, 
some  of  them  awkward  necessities,  entailed  by 
want  of  space  and  other  limitations,  have  been 
transplanted  to  the  open  fields,  where  only  their 


STAIR  IVAYS  AND  TILES. 


A  SWIFT  DESCENT. 


awkwardness  remains. 
Staircases  are  a  nota- 
ble example  of  this. 
The      old  -  fashioned 
steep  and  narrow  steps, 
with  their  short  runs  and 
frequent  turns,  have  not 
been  allowed  to  develop  by 
natural  selection  and  a  hap- 
py survival  of  the  fittest  into 
broad,  easy  avenues  of  as- 
cent, filling, 
perhaps,  an 
entire  square 
room,  but 
dwellers  in  the 
"  unpaved  dis- 
tricts "  have 
persisted  in 
building  long, 
slender,  precip- 


154 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


itous  step-ladders,  swelling  out  at  the  bottom 
with  a  flow  of  curved  platforms,  making  a  pre- 
tence of  breadth  where  there  is  no  breadth,  and 
terminating  at  the  top  in  a  twisted  vortex,  — 
a  dangerous  trap  for  old  people  and  little  folks. 
These  things  are  often  inexcusable  in  city  houses, 
where,  owing  to  their  more  constant  use  and 
greater  extent,  there  is  the  utmost  need  of  ease 
and  safety.  In  the  country  they  are  always  an 
unpardonable  offence.  Until  a  man  can  afford 
space  for  an  easy  progress  toward  the  upper  re- 
gions he  should  abide  below. 

In  remodelling  the  old  house,  St.  Augustine 
aimed  first  to  secure  an  ample  staircase,  and 
generously  set  apart  one  of  the  main  rooms  for 
the  purpose.  These  stairs  have  been  an  inter- 
esting study,  and  I  have  to-day  completed  the 
designs  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  parties.  When 
they  were  first  under  discussion,  I  argued  against 
the  common  turned  balusters,  which  seem  to  me 


SUBSTITUTES   FOR  BALUSTERS. 


STAIRWAYS  AND  TILES. 


most  appropriate  for  some  material  of  uniform 
grain  and  color  that  will  show  to  best  advan- 
tage the  lights  and  shadows  of  carved,  turned,  or 
moulded  work,  —  as  stone,  ebony,  painted  wood, 
or  iron.  This  staircase  is  to  be  of  Western  ash, 
the  marked  graining  of  which  would  mar  the 
beauty  of  form  suited  to  a  separate  baluster. 
Furthermore,  there  are  so  many  of  them  !  A 
symmetrical  figure  a  couple  of  feet  long,  and 
two,  three,  or  four  inches  in  diameter,  should 
be  very  beautiful  to  justify  the  existence  of  a 
gross  or  two  of  isolated  specimens  exactly  alike, 
"all  in  a  bunch."  It  is  wearisome  to  think  of 
the  thousands  of  stairways  with  a  turned  walnut 
post  at  the  bottom,  a  flattened  walnut  rail  hav- 
ing a  shepherd's  crook  at  the  top,  and  tapering 
walnut  sticks  in  pairs  all  the  way  up  the  side. 
Whether  it  was  the  plea  for  variety  or  for  the 
eternal  fitness  that  prevailed  I  have  forgotten, 
but  the  turned  balusters  were  given  up. 


158 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


On  delivering  the  plans  this  morning  I  found 
to  my  dismay  that  they  contained  one  fatal  de- 
fect. The  steps  were  satisfactory, —  six  inches 
high  and  twelve  inches  wide.  The  entire  width 
was  sufficient  (five  feet  in  the  clear)  ;  the  design 
for  the  balustrade,  if  that  can  be  called  a  balus- 
trade which  has  no  balusters,  was  approved ;  the 
newel  post,  that  most  trying  feature,  passed  its 
examination  creditably  ;  and  the  broad  landings, 
on  two  of  which  arc  windows  with  wide  seats 
beneath,  and  on  the  third  a  tall  recess  where  the 
old  Dutch  clock  will  repeat  its  solemn,  Never, 
forever,"  were  reckoned  a  decided  success.  But, 
alas  !  the  back  of  the  stairs,  being  panelled  in  the 
most  orthodox  fashion,  looked  in  the  eyes  of  St. 
Augustine  like  the  under  side  of  the  top  berth 
in  a  sleeping-car,  and  the  upper  flight  seemed  to 
be  suspended,  like  Mahomet's  coffin,  midway  be- 
tween the  cellar  and  the  roof.  I  protested  that 
unless  we  walked  like  the  antipodes,  with  our 


STRENGTH  AND  LIGHTNESS. 


STAIRWAYS  AND  TILES. 


i6i 


heads  toward  the  nadir,  steps  on  the  under  side 
were  useless,  and  that  the  flight,  apparently  held 
in  critical  suspense,  would,  in  fact,  safely  carry  a 
regiment  of  soldiers  to  his  battlements  if  occa- 
sion required.  But  he  was  persistent,  the  treads 
must  show  from  beneath  and  the  "turning  new- 
els" must  reach  from  the  ground-floor  to  the 
topmost  flight.  The  plans  have  been  changed 
accordingly,  and  I 'm  satisfied  that  the  result  will 
be  excellent.  The  whole  staircase  will  appear 
less  ponderous  than  if  finished  at  the  back  in 
the  usual  way,  and  will  seem  what  it  is,  light 
and  strong. 

"  In  the  elder  days  of  art, 
Builders  wrought  with  greatest  care 
Each  minute  and  unseen  part ; 
For  the  gods  see  " 

straight  through  lath  and  plaster,  and  stone 
walls  hide  nothing  from  their  penetrating  sight. 
I  think  we  may  sometimes  get  the  better  of  the 


l62 


HOME  INTERIORS, 


inquisitive  gods  by  contriving  our  work  so  that 
there  shall  be  no  unseen  parts,  letting  the  actual 
construction  of  the  house  itself,  as  well  as  of 
its  furniture,  be  apparent,  not  only  to  celestial 
but  to  mortal  eyes. 

Of  course  a  staircase  contains  intrinsic  ele- 
ments of  grandeur,  but  it  is  a  mistake  to  try 
to  thrust  grandeur  upon  it  by  starting  with  a 
huge  post  or  column,  which,  according  to  the  old 
interpretation,  it  would  be  no  sin  to  worship, 
since  it  is  in  the  likeness  of  no  created  thing 
below  or  above,  continuing  the  exercises  on  the 
back  of  a  hand-rail  that  would  carry  an  express 
train  ;  setting  a  colonnade  of  solid  balusters  at 
one  side  to  match  a  solid  wainscot  at  the  other, 
and  backing  the  whole  with  deep  panels  of  hard- 
wood, attached  in  some  mysterious  manner  to 
the  sloping  surface  behind  and  below.  When 
all  this  is  crowded  into  a  straight  and  narrow 
hall,  one  can't  help  thinking  that  the  broad  road 


A  BROAD  LANDING. 


STAIRWAYS  AND  TILES. 


165 


is,  to  say  the  least,  the  more  attractive.  When 
there  is  not  room  for  a  genuine  magnificence  in 
the  getting-up-stairs  department,  it  is  far  better 
that  these  useful  members  should  retire  to  some 
quiet  corner,  and  there  in  humble  simplicity  lift 
the  members  of  the  household  to  a  loftier  place 
by  safe  and  easy  steps. 

Because  it  is  desirable  to  have  as  many  rooms 
as  possible  in  direct  communication  with  the  hall 
and  also  with  the  stairs,  the  one  commonly  con- 
tains the  other,  but  the  same  convenience  results 
if  the  main  or  central  hall  and  the  staircase  hall 
are  contiguous,  though  separated.  In  fact,  there 
is  often  no  need  of  a  staircase  "hall"  at  all.  In 
small  houses,  especially,  it  is  better  to  enclose 
them  completely  with  doors  at  top  and  bottom, 
than  to  compel  them  to  stand,  fully  exposed  in 
their  narrow  length,  gathering  their  skirts  about 
them  for  fear  of  encroaching  by  one  precious 
inch  on  the   contracted   passage  at  one  side, 


HOME  INTERIORS, 


which  is  called  in  vain  exaggeration  a  "  front 
hall."  Back  stairs  are  frequently  thus  enclosed 
and  are  usually  steep,  dark,  and  narrow,  hence 
there  is  a  prejudice  against  enclosing  the  prin- 
cipal flight  in  a  similar  manner.  But  if  prop- 
erly graded,  well  lighted,  and  furnished  with  a 
hand-rail  at  each  side,  such  a  stairway  is  most 
convenient  and  sensible,  as  well  as  economical 
in  construction  and  in  the  saving  of  heat  when 
that  is  desirable.  Likewise,  the  Httle  hall  or 
entry  is  ten  times  more  pleasant  and  valuable 
when  not  cut  up  and  blockaded  by  the  stairs. 
Instead  of  a  door  at  the  foot,  an  arched  opening 
with  a  movable  curtain  may  be  used  to  good 
purpose,  and,  of  course,  the  doors  at  the  top 
may  be  omitted. 

Falling  down  stairs  is  not  a  legitimate  occu- 
pation for  adults,  but  the  liability  to  fall,  and 
the  danger  in  case  of  a  slip  or  a  misstep,  is 
much  diminished  if  each  flight  has  at  least  one 


STAIRWAYS  AND  TILES. 


169 


broad,  square  landing  or  turn.  These  came  into 
St.  Augustine's  plan  admirably,  though  if  the 
stairs  had  been  narrower  and  the  ceilings  higher 
I  would  have  introduced  a  long,  horizontal  walk 
next  the  outer  wall,  not  only  as  a  diversion  and 
a  rest  in  climbing,  but  for  the  sake  of  a  pleasant 
interior  effect.  The  room  which  they  occupy 
being  nearly  square,  there  is  virtually  no  floor 
in  the  second  and  third  stories,  only  a  gallery 
of  about  the  same  width  as  the  stairs  them- 
selves, giving  access  to  the  various  adjacent 
chambers. 

I  see  no  reason  why  both  these  latter  features 
may  not  be  available  in  small  houses  of  the  sim- 
plest construction  without  loss  of  room  or  con- 
venience, without  much  increase  of  cost,  and 
with  great  gain  in  appearance. 

My  days  with  St.  Augustine  are  busy  ones, 
and  this  has  been  no  exception.  There  seems 
to  be  no  end  of  "points"  in  the  thorough  fin- 


I/O 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


ishing  of  a  large  house.  Having  disposed  of  the 
stairs,  we  attacked  the  tiles,  beginning  with  the 
kitchen.  Here  there  is  to  be  a  dado  four  and 
a  half  feet  high,  of  plain  white  six-inch  tile,  with 
a  brown  base  at  the  bottom  and  a  blue  and  white 
border  at  the  top.  The  bath-rooms  are  to  be 
similarly  dadoed,  and  will  also  have  tile  floors. 
On  these,  rugs  will  be  needed  —  small,  woolly 
islands  —  for  bare  feet  in  cold  weather  and  after 
a  hot  bath.  The  fireplaces  are  lined  fully  with 
tile  to  the  exclusion  of  soapstone,  fire-brick,  or 
iron,  and  the  hearths  correspond.  Some  of  the 
mantels  have  borders  next  the  fire,  and  in  one 
the  tiles  extend  above  the  shelf  in  an  unbroken 
mass. 

In  selecting  and  arranging  these  there  is  the 
same  difficulty  as  with  paper-hangings,  —  combi- 
nations cannot  be  judged  by  isolated  specimens. 
Yet  I  find  little  satisfaction  in  anything  but 
the  combinations.    Separate  tiles  are  sometimes 


STAIRWAYS  AND  TILES. 


very  beautiful,  well  worthy  of  being  set  up  as 
ornaments,  like  vases  or  other  pottery,  but  there 
is  certainly  an  incongruity  in  using  them  as  dec- 
orations for  wood-work  in  situations  where  their 
durable  quality  is  of  no  value.  Inserted  in  the 
top  of  a  sideboard,  a  heavy  table,  or  a  wooden 
shelf,  either  to  cover  the  entire  surface  or  for  an 
ornamental  border,  at  the  base  of  a  newel  post, 
next  the  fire,  in  a  chimney-piece  made  of  wood, 
and  in  various  other  locations,  their  hardness 
justifies  their  position,  but  they  should  not  be 
set  scattered  about  "promiscuous  like"  in  pilas- 
ters, corners,  and  prominent  places  where  they 
have  no  meaning  except  by  reason  of  color  and 
pattern.  This  is  worse  than  new  cloth  on  an  old 
garment ;  it  is  like  a  cast-iron  fence  around  a 
country  door-yard,  a  binding  of  brass  on  a  velvet 
gown.  If  color  and  figures  are  needed,  paint- 
brush and  picture-books  will  supply  them  in 
more  consistent  form. 


174 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


Tiles  will  also  be  used  as  a  setting  for  the  fur- 
nace registers,  which  stand,  as  they  ought,  in  the 
walls  near  the  floor  and  not  in  the  floor  itself 
Some  of  them  will  occupy  conspicuous  situations, 
and  although  no  wealth  of  ornament  in  bronze, 
nickel,  or  gilt  will  add  one  gleam  of  picturesque 
sentiment  to  the  "hot,  black  breath"  of  an  indi- 
rect heating  apparatus,  the  registers  are  impor- 
tant features,  and  are  entitled  to  certain  marks 
of  distinction.  The  debatable  ground  between 
the  hot  iron  and  the  combustible  wood  around 
it  is  properly  filled  with  some  non-conducting 
material.  Soapstone  borders  are  common,  mar- 
ble or  slate  may  be  used,  but  tiles  are  of  course 
more  ornamental  than  either. 


TOO  COSTLY  FOR  EVERY  ROOM. 


EIGHTH  DAY. 


FIREPLACES    AND    BIG  WINDOWS. 

";IKE  the  iindevout  astronomer,  the  man 
who  does  not  stand  in  awe  before  the 
1  marvellous  growth  and  the  \vondrous 
works  of  humanity  is  a  fool  or  a  cynic.  Among 
these  achievements,  what  is  grander  in  its  result, 
grander  in  its  evidence  of  peace  on  earth  and 
good-will  among  men,  than  the  fact  that,  sitting 
in  my  room,  away  from  all  human  sights  and 
sounds,  I  can  yet  speak  with  the  tongue  of  men 
and  angels  —  if  I  understand  the  language  —  to 
every  mortal  being  who  has  a  recognized  habi- 
tation in  the  civilized  world  ?    I  can  call  living 


1/8 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


spirits  from  the  vasty  deeps  of  restless  activity 
on  which  the  sun  never  sets,  and  they  will  come 
at  my  call.  Though  dwelling  in  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  sea,  they  are  all  in  immediate  com- 
munication with  me,  and  I  with  them.  The 
magic  wand  that  summons  each  individual  to 
my  presence,  —  the  "open  sesame"  that  admits 
me  to  the  audience-chamber  of  mankind,  is  a 
postal-card  or  a  stamp.  It  is  wonderful  in  its 
result,  glorious  in  its  promise.  Talk  of  writing 
the  book  of  Job  on  a  half-dime !  Why,  I  could 
write  a  whole  library  of  moral  reflections  on  a 
postage-stamp. 

The  most  serious  danger  in  these  days  of  epis- 
tolary correspondence  is  that  the  art  of  clear  and 
truthful  speech  will  be  forgotten.  If  a  man  has 
any  important  communication  to  make,  even  to 
his  next-door  neighbor,  he  writes  him,  or  her, 
a  letter.  If  he  has  a  message  for  the  public,  he 
spreads  his  thought  upon  paper,  and  the  mails 


FIREPLACES  AND  BIG  WINDOWS.  l8l 


spread  the  papers.  In  business,  the  fashion  of 
correspondence  has  some  decided  advantages. 
The  ability  of  a  man  to  write  his  own  name  is 
established.  His  wishes  and  opinions  are  likely 
to  be  more  accurately  and  briefly  expressed  by 
writing  than  through  the  more  facile  medium 
of  vocal  utterance.  Likewise,  statements  "in 
black  and  white"  are  less  liable  to  fade  from 
memory,  or,  chameleon-like,  to  change  their  col- 
oring. At  all  events,  I  find  business  transacted 
wholly  "by  mail"  quite  as  satisfactory  in  its  re- 
sults as  that  which  has  the  benefit  of  the  "  word- 
o'-mouth"  encounter. 

One  of  my  familiar  spirits,  a  neighbor  who 
lives  only  six  or  eight  hundred  miles  away,  spoke 
to  me  this  morning, —  or,  rather,  he  spoke  yes- 
terday, and  I  heard  Ijis  cry  this  morning, — 
about  the  fireplaces.  His  estimates  are  fully 
made,  and  the  margin  left  for  a  fireplace  "  in 
every  room  but  the  pantry"  is  insufficient. 


I82 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


"  At  the  lowest,"  he  exclaims,  "  the.  grates 
alone  will  cost  fifteen  dollars  and  the  mantels 
will  average  twenty-five  dollars  more.  I  can,  in- 
deed, set  up  in  two  or  three  of  the  rooms  the 
mantels  without  the  grates,  letting  the  summer- 
piece  serve  as  a  register  for  the  furnace  heat,  but 
even  then  they  will  average  nearly  forty  dollars 
each.  So,  unless  you  can  explain  how  ten  times 
forty  may  be  made  to  equal  one  hundred  and 
fifty,  I  must  give  up  my  fireplaces." 

"  I  wish  the  multiplication-table  would  always 
be  as  accommodating,"  I  reply  on  the  under  side 
of  my  postage-stamp.  "  With  wood  at  twelve 
dollars  a  cord,  the  fireplaces  may  be  an  expen- 
sive luxury  to  feed,  but  if  you  are  willing  to  go 
back  to  first  principles,  you  need  not  deny  your- 
self an  unlimited  indulgence  in  the  article  itself. 
For  the  Indian's  wigwam,  an  institution  for 
which  I  have  great  respect,  a  bare  spot  of  earth, 
two  or  three  feet  in  diameter,  is  the  sole  requi- 


A  SIMPLE  NICHE. 


FIREPLACES  AND  BIG  WINDOWS.        1 85 


site.  In  the  log  cabin  of  the  pioneer,  which  I 
hold  in  still  higher  reverence,  a  hollow  pyramid 
of  durable  stones,  roughly  heaped  together  and 
pointed  perhaps  with  clay,  diffuses  the  warmth 
and  comfort  in  which  the  germs  of  a  higher  civ- 
ilization begin  to  grow.  For  the  home  of  an 
honest  man,  than  which  no  worthier  object  of 
veneration  can  be  found  on  the  face  of  the  earth, 
a  simple  niche  of  any  incombustible  material  with 
an  outlet  for  smoke  and  a  hearth  for  the  ashes 
and  the  household  gods,  is  the  fundamental 
essential  of  that  feature,  without  which  no  house 
is  complete.  Do  not  think  of  giving  it  up.  In- 
deed, if  you  can  have  but  one,  the  house  or  the 
fireplace,  give  up  the  house  and  keep  the  fire. 

That  is  strong  advice  ;  but  if  you  wish  to 
test  its  soundness,  build  a  house  as  big  as  you 
please,  finish  and  furnish  it  in  the  most  ele- 
gant manner  known  to  modern  extravagance, 
fill  the  rooms  with  fountains  and  flowers,  per- 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


fumes  and  pictures,  and  heat  them  with  hot  air 
from  the  regions  below,  —  all  but  one.  In  that 
one  build  upon  an  ample  hearth  a  glowing  fire  of 
hickory-wood,  and  in  the  presence  of  that  genial 
blaze  upon  the  bare  floor  of  the  unfinished  room 
will  congregate  all  that  is  good  and  kind  and 
lovely  of  the  household.  Which  will  you  have, 
the  house  without  these,  or  the  fireplace  with 
them  }  Which  will  be  most  like  home  }  Some 
time  in  the  dim  past  we  were  all  fire-worshippers, 
and  in  the  far  future  we  shall  be  absorbed  in  the 
glorious  brightness  of  which  the  feeble  flickering- 
blaze  of  our  mortal  existence  is  a  typical  spark. 
Our  love  for  the  warmth  and  brightness  of  the 
fire  is  not  a  thing  to  be  cultivated  or  analyzed,  it 
is  instinctive,  a  part  of  every  healthy,  unperverted 
nature. 

"  I  suppose  the  sumptuous  treatment  of  the  fire- 
place and  its  accessories  is  the  involuntary  trib- 
ute paid  to  the  beauty  of  the  fire,  but  the  attempt 


FIREPLACES  AND  BIG  WIXDOWS.        1 89 


to  enhance  this,  or  any  other  innate  beauty,  by 
ornamental  surroundings  is  commonly  a  miser- 
able failure.  It  glows  as  brightly,  sheds  its  radi- 
ance as  freely  and  as  far,  from  the  uncouth  chim- 
ney of  the  backwoods  cabin  as  from  the  polished 
and  plated  bars  of  the  grand  salon;  and  although 
that  may  be  reckoned  a  crude  taste  which  prefers 
the  uncouth  chimney,  it  is  surely  a  narrow  view 
which  fails  to  see  the  comparative  insignificance 
of  all  surroundings,  whether  coarse  or  fine. 

"  Given  a  chimney  starting  from  the  ground,  as 
every  chimney  ought,  and  five  dollars  will  make 
a  fireplace  in  each  room  through  which  it  passes. 
Common  bricks  well  laid  are  not  incompatible 
with  the  finishing  and  furnishing  of  a  family  sit- 
ting-room or  chamber.  They  may  be  left  bare, 
painted  or  coated  with  Portland  cement.  If  con- 
stantly used,  the  back  will  burn  out  after  a  time, 
unless  protected  by  a  slab  of  soapstone,  a  lining 
of  fire-brick,  or  a  plate  of  cast-iron.    If  coal  is  to 


I90 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


be  burned,  a  cast-iron  basket  or  some  form  of 
grate  must  stand  in  the  recess.  This  may  be  set 
in  the  brick-work,  rest  upon  its  own  legs  or  swing 
from  a  crane,  and  should  cost  four  or  five  cents 
a  pound.    That  is,  in  brief,  the  simplest  form  of 


SWINGING  FROM    A  CRANE. 


a  fireplace.  It  is  all  that  is  necessary  for  the 
highest  beauty  and  comfort  that  a  fireplace  can 
give.  Its  modifications  are  endless.  A  shelf 
made  of  wood,  slate,  marble,  or  malachite  may  be 
placed  above  it  to  hold  fanciful  match-safes,  dis- 


FIREPLACES  AND  BIG  WINDOWS.        1 93 


torted  bottles,  photographs  in  straw  frames,  dust 
and  ashes.  It  may  be  surmounted  by  French- 
plate  mirrors,  flanked  by  panelled  buttresses, 
carved  owls,  or  allegorical  pictures  upon  tiles. 
But  these  delightful  surroundings  are  not  essen- 
tial to  the  fireplace,  which  may  safely  be  left  in 
unadorned  simplicity,  like  the  door  and  window 
casings.  To  our  accustomed  eyes  the  tablet  and 
ornamental  adjuncts  seem  indispensable.  The 
fire  will  lose  nothing  if  they  are  left  in  the  shops 
where  they  were  made. 

"  A  fireplace  for  burning  wood  will  "need  a  fen- 
der or  a  watchman.  It  is  not  necessary  that  the 
fender  should  be  of  solid  brass,  handed  down  from 
some  colonial  governor's  library.  A  modern  wire 
netting  on  a  frame  of  gas-pipe,  a  sheet  of  thin 
brass  with  simple  perforations  made  at  any  ma- 
chine-shop, or  any  other  expedient  of  Yankee 
ingenuity,  ta  let  the  heat  out  and  keep  the  sparks 
in,  is  equally  effective.    Whether  the  hearth  is  of 


194 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


pressed  bricks,  slates,  or  tiles,  let  it  be  dark  in  ^ 
color  and  vast  in  size.    There  will  be  so  much 
the  less  carpet  and  so  much  the  more  comfort. 

Your  notion  of  building  a  monstrous  mantel, 
by  way  of  mouthpiece  to  a  furnace-pipe,  is  sim- 
ply atrocious.  If  a  shelf  is  needed  for  bric-a-brac, 
let  there  be  a  shelf  for  that  purpose.  If  a  rest  is 
required  for  a  large  mirror,  build  it.  If  the  fur- 
nace-pipes for  the  rooms  above,  or  for  the  room 
itself,  must  be  covered  by  some  sort  of  case  pro- 
jecting into  the  room,  let  the  case  appear,  and 
treat  it  in  such  fashion  that  it  shall  be  a  pleasant 
feature  and  not  a  conspicuous  sham.  It  is  true 
that  the  furnace  heat  often  comes  through  these 
pseudo-grates  by  way  of  a  '  summer-piece,'  but 
that  only  makes  the  deceit  the  more  exasper- 
ating. Why  not  buy  an  upright  piano  with  the 
inside  arrangements  all  left  out,  in  order  to  look 
musical,  a  thousand  or  two  of  book-covers  glued 
to  blocks  of  wood  that  your  library  may  have  a 


BRASS  WATCHMAN. 


BRASS  WATCHMAN. 


FIREPLACES  AND  BIG  WINDOWS.        1 97 


literary  appearance,  and  keep  a  lot  of  wax-work 
and  colored  water  on  your  sideboard  to  imitate 
fruit  and  wine  ?  When  you  begin  to  indulge  in 
shams  you  cannot  draw  the  line  arbitrarily.  They 
all  belong  to  the  same  family,  and  a  free  pass  for 
one  is  good  for  the  whole  crowd.  If  you  are 
pleased  to  consider  these  useless  mantels  as  dec- 
orative objects,  pure  and  simple,  I  can  only  say, 
tastes  differ.  For  myself,  I  should  as  soon  think 
of  setting  up,  by  way  of  parlor  ornament,  a  sec- 
ond-hand tombstone,  or  the  carved  head-board 
of  a  two-story  walnut  bedstead." 

I  should  not  have  felt  justified  in  suggesting 
such  a  reckless  indulgence  in  open  fires  without 
giving  the  preli:iiinary  caution  that  their  constant 
use  as  the  sole  means  of  supplying  warmth  in 
very  cold  weather  will  prove  an  expensive  luxury. 
In  a  furnace-heated  dwelling  they  may  well  be 
furnished  to  every  room  in  which  the  social  meet- 
ing even  of  two  or  three  is  liable  to  occur,  or  in 


198 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


which  a  suffering  invahd  may  ever  be  compelled 
to  abide. 

Where  each  room  is  dependent  upon  its  own 
resources  for  warmth,  an  isolated  stove  is  much 
more  economical,  as  everybody  knows,  than  a 
fireplace.  These  patent  iron  heating-machines 
with  oil-cloth  underneath  and  Russia  pipe  above, 
with  their  clatter  of  shovel  and  tongs,  poker  and 
ash-pan,  are  often  looked  upon  as  necessary  evils 
while  in  use,  and  unmitigated  nuisances  when 
cold.  On  this  account  the  horrible  custom  has 
arisen  of  "taking  the  stove  down" — which  means 
carrying  it  off  to  grow  rusty  during  the  warm 
weather  —  on  the  first  spring  days  when  the 
generous  heat  of  the  sun  fills  the  mistress  of  the 
house  with  an  ardent  but  mistaken  faith  that 
summer  has  come.  Out  of  this  custom  proceed 
coughs,  colds,  neuralgias,  and  rheumatics,"  sore- 
ness of  the  joints  and  blueness  of  spirits. 

At  present  the  most  practicable  mode  of  mak- 


FIREPLACES  AND  BIG  WINDOWS.  201 


ing  a  stove  charming  in  December,  inoffensive  in 
August,  and  ready  for  use  at  all  times,  is  to  build 
for  its  accommodation  a  recess  or  alcove  either  in 
the  corner  or  at  one  side  of  the  room.  This  may 
be  arched  at  the  top  ;  if  very  narrow,  the  sides 
should  be  of  brick  or  of  extra-thick  plastering 
upon  iron  lath.  Shelves  or  brackets,  for  non- 
explosive  ornaments,  may  partially  occupy  the  up- 
per portion,  and  the  stove  itself  may  have  a  face 
as  open  and  cheerful  as  any  grate  in  the  land, 
if  such  stoves  can  be  found.  They  will  be,  of 
course,  when  there  is  a  positive  demand  for  them. 
In  August  the  recess  becomes  a  closet ;  the 
stove,  hidden  by  a  pretty  screen  or  a  short  door, 
occupies  the  lower  part,  while  the  ornaments  be- 
fore mentioned  look  serenely  down  from  above  ; 
or  the  whole  interior  may  be  gracefully  hidden  by 
violet  velvet  curtains,  swung  by  silver  hooks  from 
a  golden  rod.  A  simpler  material,  known  to 
housekeepers  as  "  mosquito  bar,"  may  be  used  for 


202 


HOME  INTERIORS, 


economy's  sake.  The  amount  of  heat  thrown 
into  a  room  from  a  stove  thus  situated  will  de- 
pend somewhat  upon  the  form  and  construction 
of  the  recess,  but  it  is  certain  that  much  more 
will  be  saved  than  with  a  common  grate,  from 
which  so  much  speeds  away  up  chimney  to  its 
everlasting  source,  the  sun. 

For  the  benefit  of  another  neighbor,  nearer 
home,  I  have  just  been  discussing  the  same  sub- 
ject, —  the  sun  and  its  light.  If  it  were  not  for 
the  blessed  decree  by  which  he  is  compelled  to 
shine  upon  the  just  and  the  unjust  with  a  benefi- 
cence that  not  even  blue  glass  can  wholly  inter- 
cept or  avert,  it  would  not  be  strange  if  he  should 
withhold  his  beams  from  us  in  righteous  indigna- 
tion at  our  ingratitude.  Not  through  wide,  free 
openings  and  with  thankful  hearts  do  we  receive 
the  fulness  of  the  blessing,  but  with  ignorant 
conceit,  and  through  windows  narrow  and  low, 
blinded  and  curtained,  stained,  painted,  and  un- 
clean. 


SUITED  TO  ALL  SEASONS. 


FIREPLACES  AND  BIG  WINDOWS.  205 


It  is  not,  however,  the  moral  or  sanitary  con- 
siderations that  trouble  Mistress  Abigail.  Her 
anxiety  is  in  regard  to  the  interior  arrangements. 
"  How  can  I  curtain  a  great  square  window  ? 
How  can  I  open  it,  and  why  not  have  two  half  as 
large  t  "  is  the  burden  of  her  complaint. 

And  the  substance  of  my  reply  is,  that  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  arrange  drapery  with  ease 
and  grace  for  anything  but  a  wide  window. 
That  facility  of  opening  is  not  dependent  upon 
width,  and  that  one  window  five  feet  wide  is  in 
many  cases  as  much  better  than  two  of  two  and 
a  half  feet  as  the  two  are  than  ten  of  three  inches 
each.  Better  for  light,  better  for  warmth,  better 
for  interior  furnishing,  better  for  observation, 
better  for  the  illuminating  effect  upon  the  whole 
apartment. 

The  persistent  way  in  which  a  stupid  custom 
perpetuates  itself  is  most  tormenting.  There  is 
absolutely  no  reason  why  there  should   be  a 


206 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


"  regular "  size  for  window-glass  or  width  for 
window-curtains,  or  any  regular  mode  of  placing 
or  finishing  them.  The  finest  effects  are  often 
the  most  irregular  and  unexpected.  Mrs.  Abigail 
ventures  to  have  one  wide  window  by  way  of  ex- 
periment. Twenty-five  years  hence,  her  daugh- 
ter, remembering  the  happy  incidents  of  her 
childhood,  will  have  two.  So  tedious  are  the 
blows  by  which  an  ancient  custom  is  destroyed. 


NINTH  DAY. 


RENOVATING    OLD    HOUSES,    VARIOUS  DECORA- 
TIONS AND  FURNISHINGS. 

~'  Ij  RECENT  writer  on  the  subject  com- 
jj  pares  the  relation  of  architect  and  cli- 
i  ent  in  its  personal  aspects  to  that 
existing  between  a  man  and  his  family  phy- 
sician, his  legal  adviser,  or,  perhaps,  his  pastor, 
to  each  of  whom  he  reveals  certain  of  his  pri- 
vate concerns  which  he  does  not  discuss  freely 
with  others.  The  more  I  observ^e  of  the  build- 
ing of  homes  the  more  I  am  inclined  to  maintain 
the  dignity  of  my  profession  by  claiming  for  it 
the  first  rank  in  this  respect.    Of  course  when 


208 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


we  find  ourselves  liable  to  trespass  or  be  tres- 
passed against,  we  disclose  our  designs  or  our 
dangers  to  some  representative  of  the  stern  ma- 
jesty of  law,  whose  ability  to  make  white  black 
and  black  white  is  most  renowned.  Likewise 
when  tormented  by  physical  pangs  or  spiritual 
woe,  and  in  what  we  vaguely  and  ignorantly  call 
"great  crises,"  we  seek  those  who  can  ease  our 
bodies  and  shrive  our  souls.  But  trespassing 
is  n't  the  normal  condition  of  civilized  man, 
whatever  the  dogmatists  may  say,  and  small 
crises  are  much  more  common  than  big  ones. 
In  brief,  most  men  are  more  intimately  affected 
by  the  character  of  their  homes  than  by  the  po- 
tions they  absorb,  whether  doctrinal,  legal,  or 
medical.  It  is  true,  "houses"  and  "homes"  are 
not  identical,  but  the  relationship  is  very  close 
and  peculiar.  In  studying  for  a  plan  or  for 
counsel  I  confess  my  inability  to  draw  the  line 
between  the  material  and  the  spiritual,  the  eco- 


RENOVATING  OLD  HOUSES. 


209 


nomical  and  the  moral,  the  sanitary  and  the 
aesthetic,  the  useful  and  the  beautiful. 

When  a  man  asks  me  for  a  plan  and  design 
for  a  house,  I  can  furnish  it  without  knowing 
whether  he  is  the  czar  of  Russia  or  an  Iowa 
granger.  If  he  desires  a  home,  the  case  is  differ- 
ent. I  want  to  know  who  his  grandfather  was 
and  where  his  wife  was  "  raised " ;  to  what 
church  he  belongs,  or  does  n't  belong ;  which 
way  he  votes,  and  what  he  thinks  of  Darwin,  — 
if  he  thinks  at  all ;  how  he  made  his  money,  and 
whether  he  believes  in  a  future  state  of  rewards 
and  punishments ;  the  size  of  his  family,  present 
and  prospective  ;  the  number  of  his  servants,  and 
how  he  treats  them  ;  his  own  business,  and  how 
his  daughters  spend  their  time ;  whether  they 
are  domestic,  musical,  literary,  or  stylish  ;  how 
many  furs  and  silk  dresses  are  annually  con- 
sumed ;  whether  he  buys  his  groceries  at  whole- 
sale or  retail,  and  all  about  the  family  plate  and 


210 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


Other  heirlooms.  I  want  to  know  the  number 
and  quality  of  his  guests  ;  whether  he  drinks 
wine  with  his  dinner ;  his  views  on  sanitary 
questions  ;  the  state  of  his  nerves  and  of  those 
belonging  to  the  family  in  general ;  his  social 
habits  as  to  hospitality,  as  to  cleanliness,  —  with 
special  reference  to  wash-bowls,  side  entrances, 
and  floors;  whether  he  is  a  slave  to  the  "vile 
weed  "  ;  at  what  hour  he  seeks  his  downy  couch  ; 
and  also  if  he  takes  care  of  the  furnace  himself 
and  attends  to  the  chores."  Now,  a  tenth  part 
of  these  questions  put  to  a  stranger  or  a  casual 
acquaintance  would  appall  the  most  inquisitive 
typical  Yankee,  —  if  anybody  knows  where  he 
can  be  found.  I  can  only  remove  the  difficulty 
by  establishing  as  soon  as  possible  such  a  degree 
of  mutual  confidence  that  all  these  things  "come 
of  themselves." 

The  foregoing  moral  reflections  have  no  spe- 
cial reference  to  the  work  of  to-day.    They  were 


RENOVATING  OLD  HOUSES. 


211 


inspired  by  a  visit  from  Sister  Jane,  who  always 
fills  me  with  a  most  solemn  sense  of  my  great 
responsibility  in  the  matter  of  home-building. 

It  is  not  the  mere  spending  of  money,"  quoth 
she,  "  it  is  the  shaping  of  human  destiny."  She 
brought  me  some  raw  material  to  work  upon 
in  the  persons  of  her  husband's  youngest  brother, 
a  blushing  bridegroom,  and  his  pretty  wife. 
They  came  not  only  for  a  visit,  but  for  counsel. 
They  have  bought  a  new  house  —  new  to  them, 
but  old  in  fact  —  in  the  town  where  they  live, 
an  awkward,  uncompromising  affair,  illy-con- 
trived, low  "  between  joints,"  and  what  shall  be 
done  with  the  drunken  sailor  is  a  conundrum 
too  deep  for  them  to  solve  unaided. 

In  general,  the  making  over  of  old  houses 
should  be  fought  out  on  one  of  two  lines.  Either 
make  an  entire  reconstruction  that  will  cost 
more  than  a  civil  war  and  leave  only  a  small 
portion  of  the  original  foundation-stones  by  way 


212 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


of  relic  of  the  former  mansion,  or  else  let  the 
essential  structure  severely  alone,  relying  for  all 
desired  improvements  upon  paint,  paper,  treat- 
ment, and  little  adjuncts  and  accessories  within 
and  without  that  can  be  appended  without  cut- 
ting away  to  make  room  for  them.  I 'm  in- 
clined to  think  that  the  dustino:  and  trimming: 
and  shaping  of  the  holes  in  the  old  garment  to 
make  ready  for  the  new  patches  often  costs  more 
than  to  make  a  new  garment  out  of  whole  cloth. 
But  there  is  great  satisfaction  in  trying  to  im- 
prove on  the  work  of  our  predecessors.  Human 
nature  seems  to  exult  in  the  visible  triumph  of 
pulling  down  work  that  has  been  outgrown,  and 
replacing  it  on  the  spot  with  something  better. 

Sister  Jane's  brother-in-law  adopts  the  second 
course,  the  only  visible  addition  to  the  old  house 
being  an  entrance  hall,  not  to  contain  the  stairs, 
but  large  enough  to  serve  as  a  small  reception- 
room.    As  this  will  be  wholly  new,  I  advise  him 


RENOVATING  OLD  HOUSES. 


to  plane  the  joists  and  studs  that  constitute  its 
frame,  and  then  to  lath  and  plaster  between 
these  timbers,  leaving  them  in  view  to  be  "  cor- 
nered," if  he  pleases,  and  painted  in  colors,  sober 
or  gay.  If  the  stock  is  reasonably  good,  they 
may  be  oiled  simply,  and  left  to  grow  darker 
with  age.  In  any  case  there  will  be  no  incon- 
gruity between  the  new  and  the  old  work,  for 
this  visible  construction  belongs  to  all  time,  like 
a  black  silk  gown,  and  is  rarely  out  of  place  in 
any  company.  This  mode  of  finishing  inner 
walls  and  ceilings  would  be  practicable  and  ap- 
propriate for  an  entire  cottage  to  be  permanently 
used,  although  by  an  unaccountable  freak  of 
popular  fancy  it  is  not  supposed  to  be  possible 
except  at  seaside  and  other  summer  resorts,  at 
many  of  which  all  that  makes  life  charming  is 
the  fashion  of  ignoring  formalities  and  conven- 
tional codes  in  building,  as  well  as  in  other  mat- 
ters,—  a  fashion  all  the  better  part  of  which 


214 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


might  safely  be  adopted  for  constant  home 
use. 

The  bride,  like  many  who  are  older  and  wiser, 
was  unable  to  comprehend  the  actual  worth  cf 
things  which  she  has  never  seen.  The  most 
vivid  illustrations  and  the  clearest  theories  are 
as  nothing:  to  actual  sisfht.  We  therefore  ad- 
journed  after  dinner  to  John's  house,  wherein 
are  to  be  found  various  and  sundry  specimens 
of  home  work  in  bodily  form.  With  the  privi- 
lege of  near  neighbors  we  walked  in  at  the  base- 
ment door  and  found  ourselves  at  once  in  the 
dining-room.  This  apartment  proved  especially 
interesting  to  the  bridegroom,  because,  like  the 
rooms  of  his  own  house,  the  ceiling  is  low.  The 
substance  of  the  lesson  he  learned  ultimately 
but  indirectly  upon  this  point,  was  to  ignore  the 
fact  and  divert  attention  from  it  by  introducing 
other  striking  features  that  are  quite  indepen- 
dent of  height.    Naturally,  the  windows  were 


DECORATIONS  AND  FURNISHINGS.  21/ 


seen  first,  —  a  group  of  three  occupying  fully 
three  fourths  of  one  end  of  the  room,  the  central 
window  projecting  quite  beyond  the  outer  face 
of  the  thick  stone  wall,  and  having  deep  jambs. 
On  the  wide  stool  stands  a  box  filled  with  climb- 
ing plants  that  cover  the  sides  and  hang  from 
the  top  in  graceful  festoons,  as  vines  always 
hang  if  left  to  themselves.  At  the  two  outer 
corners  of  the  side  windows  hang  baskets  also 
filled  with  trailing  plants.  Not  those  enormous 
affairs  of  distorted  knots  and  roots  that  look 
like  a  large  family  of  reddish-brown  serpents  in 
deadly  conflict,  nor  yet  the  ornate  receptacles  for 
which  the  only  suitable  tenants  are  the  most 
aristocratic  and  exclusive  exotics,  —  but  good 
honest  earthen  pots  that  expect  to  be  hidden, 
and  usually  are,  by  a  luxuriant  growth  of  ver- 
dure and  bloom,  that  only  asks  a  handful  of 
rich,  moist  earth  with  plenty  of  sunlight  and  air. 
I  pity  plants  that  are  imprisoned  in  stylish  vases. 


2l8 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


They  seem  like  children  who  are  always  dressed 
in  company  clothes,"  —  not  objects  of  disinter- 
ested, deep-seated  affection,  but  of  shallow,  self- 
ish vanity.  I  think  those  people  should  never 
be  intrusted  with  flowers  or  children  who  do  not 
love  and  reverence  them,  whatever  soil  they 
grow  in  or  clothes  they  wear. 

Directly  in  front  of  the  three  windows  stands 
a  long,  narrow  box  filled  with  earth,  in  the  mid- 
dle of  which  is  a  bed  of  dark,  rich  ferns,  and 
in  the  ends,  geraniums,  heliotropes,  and  grateful 
nasturtiums,  that  grow  so  freely  and  bloom 
perennially.  We  charged  John  with  attempting 
a  vain  deceit  in  covering  the  outside  of  the  boxes 
with  a  pattern  of  oil-cloth  that  resembles  tiles  so 
closely  as  to  mislead  the  uninitiated.  He  pro- 
tests that  it  is  no  more  deception  than  paper- 
hangings  on  the  walls,  that  oil-cloth  is  the  proper 
material  for  covering  flower-boxes,  and  its  re- 
semblance to  tile  a  mere  accident.    Perhaps  so. 


DECORATIONS  AND  FURNISHINGS. 


221 


but,  whatever  the  motive,  the  whole  arrangement 
is  so  attractive  that  the  height  of  the  ceiUng  is 
quite  unnoticed. 

The  fireplace  at  one  side  of  the  room  aston- 
ished the  bridegroom,  who.  had  never  seen  its 
like.  When  John  explained  how  he  had  it  built, 
originally  very  large  and  according  to  the  an- 
tique model,  how  "  the  old  thing  would  n't  draw," 
how  he  bought  an  old  grate  and  a  plate  of  cast- 
iron  at  a  junk-shop,  stole  some  bricks  and  mor- 
tar, laid  up  a  couple  of  thin  walls  as  far  apart  as 
the  length  of  the  grate,  supported  the  grate  near 
the  bottom  and  put  the  plate  on  the  top,  —  all 
inside  the  cavity  of  the  antique  original, — how 
he  let  the  top  bricks  of  the  two  side  walls  pro- 
ject a  little,  set  a  short  wooden  block  on  the  top 
of  each  pier  like  Patience  on  a  monument,  and 
then  clapped  a  shelf  on  these,  —  the  bridegroom 
fairly  glowed  with  admiration  and  delight.  He 
declared  he  would  have  six  exactly  like  it  in  his 


222 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


own  house,  which  is  filled  with  fireplaces  too  big 
to  use  in  their  present  condition.    Without  doubt 


HOMEMADE  FIREPLACE. 

he  can  so  do  if  he  chooses,  but  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  he  will  vary  the  pattern. 


DECORATIONS  AND  FURNISHINGS,  223 


Opposite  the  fireplace  stands  an  article  of  fur- 
niture that  John  says  must  be  a  "  sideboard," 
because  it  is  made  of  boards  and  stands  at  one 


ONE  evening's  work. 

side  of  the  room.  It  is  a  plain  table,  long  and 
narrow,  with  a  drawer  in  the  front  side  and  with- 
out leaves.    Upon  this  John  has  built,  also  with 


224 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


his  own  hands,  a  low  tier  of  shelves,  the  work  of 
one  evening  and  a  fret  saw.  It  is  not  a  conven- 
tional piece  of  furniture,  it  is  n't  even  "  Eastlake  " 
in  design,  but  is  so  hospitable  and  convenient 
that  it  has  a  beauty  all  its  own. 

By  way  of  wall-decoration  in  the  dining-room, 
there  is  a  wide  frieze  of  plain  red  paper,  on  which 
is  depicted  the  most  extraordinary  procession  of 
men  and  animals  since  the  flood.  In  fact,  it  is 
supposed  to  represent  that  ancient  but  very  fa- 
miliar event,  —  Noah's  ark  and  all  the  beasts  and 
fowls  and  creeping  things  on  their  way  to  that 
refuge.  They  are  cut  out  of  black  paper  and 
pasted  upon  the  red  ground.  There  is  no  law  or 
order  in  their  arrangement.  Each  figure  seems 
actuated  by  the  old  counsel,  —  every  man  for 
himself.  Sister  Jane  has  never  fully  decided 
whether  to  consider  this  frieze  artistic  or  irrever- 
ent. If  inclined  to  use  a  similar  style  of  decora- 
tion she  would  probably  choose  a  different  theme. 


DECORATIONS  AND  FURNISHINGS.  22/ 


John  declares  it  to  be  the  only  economical  thing 
about  the  house.  The  guests  look  at  the  pictures 
and  forget  to  eat  their  dinner. 

The  bride  was  interested  in  some  of  the  details 
of  the  family  room,  which  has  a  hand-made  " 
border,  a  fret  cut  from  blue  flock  paper,  lying  on 
a  buff  ground,  —  and  outlines  of  caps  over  the 
doors  and  mirrors.  These  are  traced  by  a  nar- 
row stripe  of  dark  brown  and  gilt  paper,  and  have 
medallion  heads  in  the  centres.  The  hand-made 
borders  have  several  advantages  over  the  "  ready- 
made."  They  may  be  much  cheaper,  they  afford 
unlimited  opportunity  for  originality  in  design, 
and  it  is  possible  to  produce  with  them  more 
striking  effects  as  well  as  greater  simplicity. 

Instead  of  a  single  mirror  in  a  heavy  frame 
suspended  from  the  wall  by  a  string,  which  is 
liable  to  break  any  moment  and  cause  a  death 
in  the  family,  there  are  two,  one  at  each  side  of 
the  broad  window.    They  are  set  flat  against  the 


228 


HOME  INTERIORS. 


wall,  and  cased  precisely  like  the  doors  and  win- 
dows in  the  room.  In  front  of  each  one  is  a 
small,  low  table  or  large  bracket  for  the  inevita- 
ble pincushion  and  other  toilet-articles.  These 
brackets  or  tables  are  permanently  attached  to  the 
wall,  and  are  provided  each  with  a  drawer  under- 
neath. Before  the  window  and  between  the  little 
tables  stand  a  couple  of  chairs  and  a  footstool 
covered  with  chintz.  The  chairs  are  somewhat 
singular  in  design,  and  John  declares  that  he 
made  the  framework  of  all  three  articles  out  of 
an  empty  soap-box  in  just  five  minutes.  If  he 
had  said  twenty-five  I  should  have  believed  him 
as  to  the  time,  but  the  footstool  alone  is  larger 
than  any  soap-box  I  ever  saw.  Of  course,  they 
are  exceedingly  simple,  and  the  chairs  as  well 
as  the  footstool  are  decidedly  "  on  the  square." 
Yet  the  group  is  by  no  means  ungraceful. 

Some  of  Mrs.  John's  wall -decorations  are 
unique,  to  say  the  least.     One  room  is  girt 


BOr^DERS  OF  PLAIN  PAPER. 


DECORATIONS  AND  FURNISHINGS.       23  I 


around  with  a  zone  of  charcoal  sketches  on  the 
bare  white  plastering.  This  belt  is  about  two 
feet  wide,  and  the  walls  above  and  below  it  are 
papered.  In  another,  clusters  of  grains  and  tall 
grasses  bend  from  the  corners  and  beside  the 
windows.  These  are  so  true  to  nature,  in  form, 
that  the  apparent  skill  displayed  in  sketching 
them  was  a  source  of  great  astonishment,  until 
it  was  explained  that  they  are  simply  copies  of 
the  actual  forms  of  the  objects  which  they  rep- 
resent. The  shadows  are  thrown  upon  the  walls 
and  fastened  there  by  a  brush  dipped  in  india-ink. 
They  could  not  be  otherwise  than  true.  The 
black  ghosts  of  leaves  and  ferns  are  also  caught 
and  grouped  about  in  various  places  where  pic- 
tures could  not  well  be  hung. 

The  bride  urged  me  to  prescribe  colors  for  the 
different  rooms  of  her  house,  but,  while  this  is 
one  of  the  most  important  points,  and  one  of  the 
most  difficult  to  decide,  its  decision  especially 


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belongs  to  her.  She  would  not  think  of  asking 
me  to  choose  the  color  of  her  gowns !  In  the 
neutral  tints  is  safety  as  to  glaring  sins,  but 
danger  of  the  negative  fault  of  dulness.  Her 
low  rooms,  more  than  high  ones,  will  need  the 
life  of  bright,  strong  colors.  But  here,  too,  there 
is  a  middle  course  of  comparative  safety,  which 
consists  in  following  the  well-known  harmonies 
and  contrasts  without  attempting  unusual  and 
deHcate  combinations.  These  should  not  be  in- 
troduced except  by  a  master.  A  composition  of 
Wagner's  may  be  more  exquisite  and  wonderful 
than  an  old  English  choral,  but  the  latter  skil- 
fully rendered  will  be  far  more  agreeable  than 
an  incompetent,  blundering  execution  of  the 
former. 

On  our  return  I  bestowed  my  benediction 
upon  the  young  couple,  and  also,  being  in  a  lib- 
eral mood,  two  parcels  of  advice  as  follows : 
"  Firstly,  my  friends,  be  honest  and  independent. 


DECORATIONS  AND  FURNISHINGS.  235 


Do  not  attempt  to  force  upon  your  quaint,  old 
house  an  appearance  of  newness,  or  to  hide  its 
venerable  peculiarities  by  bright,  new-fashioned, 
self-conscious  finishing  and  furnishing.  The  one 
thing  needful  in  your  home  is  the  manifest  pres- 
ence of  harmony  and  fitness.  If  you  are  the 
happy  owners  of  a  genuine  Murillo  or  Rem- 
brandt, a  carved  Chinese  bedstead,  or  any  other 
kind  of  a  white  elephant,  you  may  well  set  aside 
an  entire  apartment  for  its  sole  use  and  behoof. 
But  in  general,  though  there  may  be  a  climax 
of  elegance  in  a  single  object  or  feature,  the 
finest  sentiment  will  dictate  a  close  equality  in 
the  various  elements  that  form  and  fill  each 
room.  Tall  furniture  under  low  ceilings,  big 
furniture  in  small  rooms,  mahogany  chairs  stand- 
ing beside  sheet-iron  stoves,  lace  curtains  sweep- 
ing above  ingrain  carpets,  wide  picture-frames 
covered  with  shining  gold-leaf,  and  coarse,  cheap, 
gaudy   paper  behind   them,  heavy  hard-wood 


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dados  supporting  a  white  plastered  wall,  pol- 
ished marble  shelves  bearing  common  glass 
lamps  and  tin  candlesticks,  —  there  is  nothing 
lovely,  nothing  comfortable  even,  in  such  combi- 
nations. Far  better  would  it  be  to  sell  all  the 
rich  material  and  buy  poor  in  exchange,  if  by 
so  doing  you  can  secure  the  nobler  element  of 
harmony. 

"  These  general  features  that  are  subject  more 
or  less  to  economic  and  constructive  conditions 
being  determined,  the  further  details  of  form, 
fabric,  and  color  afford  endless  scope  for  fancy 
and  for  study.  To  a  great  extent  they  are  mat- 
ters of  individual  feeling,  like  the  color  of  the 
gown,  but  they  must  not  be  left  to  chance. 
Neither  is  it  safe  to  affirm  that  a  strong  liking 
on  your  part  for  certain  things  proves  their  right 
to  be.  Yet  it  might  sometimes  be  wise  to  allow 
a  man  to  outgrow  his  own  crude  taste  even  by 
indulging  it,  rather  than  to  insist  upon  his  ac- 


DECORATIONS  AND  FURNISHINGS.  239 


cepting  the  verdict  —  to  him  incomprehensible 
—  of  a  higher  culture.  I  say  it  might  be  wise, 
if  no  one  suffered  from  his  blindness  but  himself 
"  Secondly,  and  finally,  be  modest  and  patient.- 
Learn  to  labor  and  to  wait.  Slow  work  is  not 
always  good,  but  nothing  very  good  was  ever 
done  in  a  hurry.  Don't  attempt  too  much  or 
too  fine  work.  Better  is  a  dinner  of  herbs  with 
a  good  appetite  than  a  stalled  ox  when  one  is 
choking  with  wrath  and  evil  passions.  Any 
simple,  quiet  thing  that  you  understand  and  ap- 
preciate, which  fills  its  place,  but  never  crowds 
and  gives  satisfaction  without  reference  to  what 
it  cost  in  time  or  money,  is  better  than  a  costly, 
unappreciated  magnificence.  It  may  be  a  zone 
of  color,  a  shape  or  a  shadow,  a  part  of  the  room 
itself  or  something  of  its  contents. 

Do  not  fear  to  imitate  what  pleases  you  if 
you  are  sure  it  is  worth  copying,  for  the  selecting 
from  worthy  models  and  adapting  to  your  own 


240 


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use  what  others  have  originated  require.s  much 
fine  discrimination  and  common-sense.  I  am 
much  mistaken,  however,  if  you  do  not  find 
your  highest  dehght  in  this  direction,  in  work 
planned  by  your  own  head  and  executed  by 
your  own  hands,  even  after  the  manner  of  our 
friend  Mrs.  John,  who,  as  you  have  just  seen, 
has  made  her  house  delightful  by  means  quite 
original,  simple,  and  economical  of  all,  save  her 
own  time  and  thought." 

"  But  /  never  can  do  such  things,"  said  the 
youthful  bride  with  a  sigh. 

"  You  can  learn,"  rephed  her  husband  with 
sublime  masculine  faith,  not  only  in  the  unlim- 
ited ability,  but  in  the  life-long  leisure  of  his 
better  half. 

"  Perhaps,  if  I  have  nothing  else  to  do,"  was 
the  doubtful  response. 

"  This  aroused  Sister  Jane,  who  proceeded  to 
give  an  address  upon  woman's  place  in  the  uni- 


DECORATIONS  AND  FURNISHINGS.       24 1 


verse,  the  substance  of  which  was  that  it  is  her 
paramount  duty  to  make  her  own  house  interest- 
ing and  attractive.  That  few  would  lack  either 
the  opportunity  or  ability  to  do  this  if  half  the 
care  and  labor  were  given  to  such  endeavors  that 
are  wasted  in  efforts  to  learn  and  follow  fashions 
in  dress.  That  these  efforts  in  the  way  of  fash- 
ion are  wasted,  because  even  at  the  end  of  a  life 
devoted  to  them  there  is,  in  consequence  of  this 
devotion,  no  real  improvement  in  artistic  per- 
ception, no  purer  taste,  no  increased  love  of 
genuine  fine  art.  That,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
crudest  attempt  to  beautify  their  homes  by  an 
humble  and  earnest  seeking  for  true  principles 
of  art  is  sure  to  lead  to  a  higher  and  nobler  life, 
and  that  the  very  dissatisfaction  which  follows  im- 
perfect work  is  a  sign  of  growth  infinitely  more 
to  be  desired  than  the  complacent  content  of 
fashionable  ignorance. 


BY  WAY   OF  APPENDIX. 


HOW  John's  house  was  painted. 


EAR  JOHN, —  You  remember  how 
valiantly  I  fought  your  architectural 
battles  for  you  when  your  air-castle 


was  brought  down  to  terra  firma  ?  Now  I  want 
a  favor  in  return.  Tell  me,  in  a  plain,  unvar- 
nished tale,  the  story  of  your  actual  operations 
in  painting  the  outside  of  your  house.  A  pound 
of  experience  is  worth  a  ton  of  theory.  Give  me 
the  benefit  of  yours,  but  not  for  myself  alone. 
To  those  who  ask  me  for  advice  on  this  inter- 
esting subject,  instead  of  laying  down  rules  and 
regulations,  and  trying  to  give  verbal  descrip- 


HOW  JOHN'S  HOUSE  WAS  PAINTED.  243 


tions  of  the  indescribable,  to  wit,  of  color,  I  want 
to  be  able  to  say :  "  Behold  John  !  see  him  and 
his  house."  That  you  have  made  a  bright  and 
shining  example  of  yourself,  I  do  not  doubt. 
Now  tell  me  all  about  it.  Let  your  light  shine. 
Don't  exaggerate,  or  set  down  aught  in  malice. 
Don't  hesitate  to  confess  your  errors ;  mistakes 
are  our  best  teachers.  Don't  speculate  and  phi- 
losophize, but  give  me  all  the  facts  you  have 
gathered  while  doing  the  work,  and  describe  as 
concisely  as  possible  the  total  result. 

Sincerely  yours. 

My  dear  Architect,  —  It's  facts  you  want, 
is  it }  Well,  here  goes.  Paint  and  putty,  like 
charity,  cover  a  multitude  of  sins.  The  world  is 
full  of  sins  anxious  to  be  covered,  consequently 
the  world  is  pretty  well  coated  with  paint. 
Where  sin  abounds,  paint  and  putty  do  more 
abound.    Sin  and  paint  were  born  about  the 


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same  time.  The  first  arbor  that  Adam  built  for 
fig-trees  and  Catawba  grape-vines  was  probably 
painted  white,  though  the  ark  is  the  first  human 
habitation  known  to  have  been  painted.  "  Thou 
shalt  paint  it  within  and  without  with  paint." 
(Gen.  vi.  14.)  Some  versions  read  "pitch"  in- 
stead of  "  paint,"  but  the  original  Hebrew,  which 
is  here  translated  "pitch,"  means  boiled  linseed 
oil  and  English  red  lead.  This  proves  that  the 
ark  was  painted,  and  painted  red.  It  also  ex- 
plains why  many  pious  people  of  later  genera- 
tions, who  don't  know  anything  about  the  flood, 
except  by  hearsay,  paint  their  old  arks  red. 
Others,  still  more  modern,  prefer  their  red  paint 
and  their  piety  in  streaks,  narrow  streaks  at  that. 
Of  these  I  shall  speak  further  by  and  by. 

I  never  saw  Noah's  ark,  either,  but  have 
always  had  a  fancy  for  these  old  red  farm- 
houses. So,  one  day,  without  consulting  Mrs. 
John,  I  brought  home  a  gallon  of  oil,  some  ver- 


HO IV  JOHN'S  HOUSE  WAS  PAINTED.  245 


milion,  a  whitewash-brush,  and  a  step-ladder, 
and  prepared  to  make  the  second  story  of  our 
house  —  the  first  you  know  is  of  stone  —  blush 
like  a  red,  red  rose.  I 'd  got  about  three  daubs 
on  the  house  and  two  on  the  ladder,  when  Mrs. 
John  came  rushing  out  like  a  distracted  goddess. 
I  supposed  the  inside  of  the  house  was  all  in  a 
blaze,  and  she  declared  she  thought  the  outside 
was,  and  all  the  neighbors  would  think  so  too. 
So  I  sat  down  on  the  step-ladder,  and,  after  a 
little  conversation,  we  agreed  to  save  the  red 
paint  to  make  streaks  with,  and  to  paint  the  red 
furniture  that  stands  out-of-doors  for  our  neigh- 
bors to  look  at.  I  find  that  sort  of  furniture 
must  be  painted  red,  or  nobody  knows  you 've 
got  it. 

Afterward  we  held  a  mutual  council  to  decide 
what  color  of  the  rainbow  we  would  adopt.  To 
our  immediate  ancestors,  some  of  whom  are  still 
extant,  a  white  house  with  green  blinds  was  in- 


246 


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dispensable,  the  white  being  an  emblem  of 
purity,  the  green  of  innocence.  Their  churches 
were  ditto,  with  now  and  then  a  tinge  of  yellow 
striking  through.  As  to  the  emblematic  part, 
that  would  suit  our  case  exactly,  but  Mrs.  John 
just  rose  in  the  majesty  of  her  wrath  and  flatly 
refused  to  abide  under  a  green-and-vvhite  canopy. 
A  white  house,  quoth  she,  is  a  cold,  dead,  star- 
ing, glaring,  ghastly  hole  in  the  landscape.  Not 
a  blot,  —  blots  are  sometimes  careless  and  pictu- 
resque,—  but  just  a  hole.  What  if  all  the  rocks 
were  white  marble  and  the  earth  marble  dust  t 
What  if  all  trees  were  white  birches,  and  people 
were  always  and  forever  wearing  nothing  but 
sheets  and  pillow-cases,  —  men,  women,  and 
children  ? 

What  and  if  her  gowns  were  bleached  cotton 
every  day,  and  her  hair  like  the  drifted  snow? 
For  the  sake  of  argument  I  remarked,  with  suit- 
able solemnity,  that  I  hoped  some  time  to  see  her 


NOW  JOHN'S  HOUSE  IVAS  PAINTED.  249 


clad  in  spotless  robes  and  waving  a  victorious, 
verdant  palm,  looking  in  fact  very  much  like  a 
white  house  with  green  blinds. 

"  If  angels  are  composed  of  flat-sided  cubical 
blocks  with  never  a  curve  or  a  softening  shadow, 
if  their  outlines  are  all  straight  lines,  if  their 
palms  of  victory  are  rectangular  pieces  of  green 
pasteboard  held  up  before  their  eyes,  if  they 
stand  forever  in  one  spot  poking  out  their  sharp 
corners  till  the  skies  of  heaven  ache,  then  1,  for 
one,  dojit  want  to  be  an  angel."  Thus  Mrs. 
John  ;  and  she  was  quite  right,  as  usual. 

At  this  point  you  will  note  the  following  facts : 
Red  houses  belong  to  the  antediluvian  period. 
That  color  was  adopted  in  former  times  in  token 
of  affection  and  respect  for  Noah,  latterly  through 
a  vain  desire  to  express  admiration  for  things 
that  were  drowned  out  long  ago.  We  were  not 
prepared  to  make  great  sacrifices  for  Noah's 
sake,  and  our  admiration  for  the  antique  is  con- 


250 


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fined  to  the  intrinsically  lovely.  We  subscribe 
to  the  ancient  and  honorable,  but  from  relics  old 
and  ugly  we  beg  to  be  excused.  Red  reminds 
of  country  school-houses,  Dutch  barns,  and  the 
back  side  of  "  the  house  where  I  was  born." 
There 's  another  objection  to  red  ;  it 's  terribly 
exasperating  to  bulls  and  gobble-turkeys.  No- 
body wants  to  live  in  constant  fear  of  being  bom- 
barded in  his  own  castle  by  an  irate  brute, 
whether  he  goes  on  two  legs  or  on  four.  Fur- 
thermore, and  worst  of  all,  red  belongs  to  the 
house  of  Lancaster.  On  the  other  hand,  white 
belongs  to  the  house  of  York,  which  is  just  as 
bad.  We  ascertained,  moreover,  that  the  occu- 
pants of  white  houses  with  green  blinds  are 
either  cold-blooded  formalists,  prim  and  precise, 
helpless  tenants  of  greedy,  grasping  landlords,  or 
they  are,  in  some  other  way,  victims  of  painful 
circumstances.  We  also  found,  and  this  is  a 
very  serious  fact,  that  the  congregations  which 


HOW  JOHN'S  HOUSE  WAS  PAINTED.  253 


cling  to  the  old  simon-pure  white  meeting-houses 
are  invariably  of  the  strait-laced-est,  hard-shelled- 
est,  blue-nosed-est,  anti-evolution-est  type.  We 
therefore  decided  unanimously,  after  holding 
sweet  counsel  together,  that,  whatever  else  hap- 
pened, our  house  should  not  be  either  white  or 
red. 

Then  we  made  a  tour  of  observation.  Our 
travels  extended  over  this  entire  community,  and 
penetrated  the  most  exclusive  and  elegant  por- 
tions of  our  city.  We  intended  to  find  the  house 
whose  color  we  liked  best,  copy  the  shade  on  the 
spot,  take  it  home  tenderly  and  make  it  our  own. 
To  this  end  we  carried  a  supply  of  tubes  to  be 
squeezed,  a  clean  piece  of  pine  board  about  as 
big  as  a  shelf,  and  a  handful  of  brushes.  White 
houses  Mrs.  John  ignored  utterly.  She  looked 
straight  through  every  one,  as  if  there  was  n't 
any  house  there.  They  ajr  mighty  aggravating. 
You  can't  hang  a  rag  of  fancy  or  sentiment  or 


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romance  to  a  white  house.  Their  spick-and- 
span,  matter-of-fact  brightness  is  wofully  dreary 
and  commonplace.  But  we  found  plenty  else. 
Every  time  we  discovered  anything  new,  we 
made  a  little  patch  on  the  board.  There  were 
washed-out  blues,  and  faded-out  pinks,  demor- 
alized yellows,  and  invisible  greens,  dirty  reds, 
and  indescribable  browns.  We  found  houses  so 
much  like  a  November  mist  that  we  could  have 
walked  square  through  them  without  knowing 
it  if  the  day  had  been  foggy.  If  I  should  buy 
Mrs.  John  a  silk  gown  or  a  pair  of  five-buttoned 
kids  of  the  same  color  that  belonged  originally  to 
certain  others,  but  which  are  now  smeared  with 
dust  from  the  street,  soot  from  the  chimneys, 
faded  by  the  sun  and  streaked  by  the  rain,  Mrs. 
John  in  her  prudence  would  say  :  "  Can't  afford 
it,  John,  too  easily  soiled  ;  besides,  't  is  n't  suit- 
able for  an  old  woman,  —  might  do  for  a  baby." 
Mrs.  John  would  be  right,  as  usual.    We  noticed, 


HOW  JOHN'S  HOUSE  WAS  PAINTED.  257 


too,  that,  when  a  man  has  been  and  painted  his 
house  one  of  these  weak  and  washy  tints,  purples 
and  lilacs,  roses  and  pearls,  baby  blues  and  peach- 
blooms,  and  shortly  discovers,  as  he  surely  will, 
what  a  helpless  thing  it  is,  then  he  tries  to  put  a 
little  life  into  it  by  striping  it  with  vermilion  and 
other  colors  belonging  to  the  poppy-bed. 

We  discovered  combinations  that  would  drive 
a  French  dressmaker  crazy  and  cost  her  all 
her  customers,  and  nine  times  out  of  ten  the 
colors  were  bottom  upward,  the  raised  parts 
dark  and  the  sunken  portions  light,  as  if  the  sole 
mission  of  paint-pots  was  to  upset  and  nullify 
what  little  effect  of  light  and  shade  there  is  to  be 
found  about  a  wooden  building. 

We  came  home  sadder  and  wiser,  and  sat 
down  to  study  the  pine  board.  It  looked  like 
an  "old  master."  There  were  seven  hundred 
and  forty-three  dabs  of  color  on  it,  not  one  of 
which  we  could  use  and  be  happy. 


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HOME  INTERIORS, 


Then  we  sent  polite  letters  to  the  manufac- 
turers of  "  paints  and  fine  colors,"  and  became  the 
happy  owners  of  twenty-four  packs  of  sample 
cards  and  much  "practical"  information.  We 
had  only  to  order  number  so-and-so  for  the  body, 
number  something  else  for  the  trimmings,  an- 
other for  the  blinds,  and  the  house  was  painted. 
A  kind  neighbor  looked  over  the  fence  and  said 
't  was  all  very  well  to  order,  —  we  might  get  what 
we  wanted,  and  we  might  get  the  very  thing  we 
despised,  and,  besides,  these  patent  colors  would 
fade  like  a  cotton  umbrella.  We  knew  that 
wasn't  true  of  all  of  them,  but —  alas!  that  one 
knave  should  bring  discredit  upon  the  whole 
fraternity  of  honest  men — we  were  afraid  to 
order.  Moreover,  on  careful  examination  of  the 
specimen  cards,  we  discovered  the  origin  of  the 
samples  we  had  collected  on  the  pine  board. 
We  held  a  conference-meeting. 

"The  trouble  is,"  said  Mrs.  John,  "all  these 


HO IV  yOHiV'S  HOUSE  WAS  FAINTED.     26 1 


are  artificial  colors.  Most  of  them  are  com- 
pounded of  the  remnants  of  a  score  or  more  of 
exhausted  tin  cans.  No  mortal  could  duplicate 
them  if  he  tried,  and  no  sane  person  would  wish 
to  if  he  could.  We  must  go  to  nature.  The 
first  story  of  our  house  is  stone ;  the  second 
should  be  —  stone-color." 
"  What  is  stone-color  }  " 

"  Everybody  knows  what  stone-color  is.  Stone- 
color  is  —  stone-color." 

The  argument  was  too  deep  for  me.  I  took 
a  hammer  and  brought  in  the  testimony  of  the 
rocks.  I  laid  out  a  chip  of  granite,  a  bit  of  old 
red  sandstone,  a  fragment  of  blue  limestone,  a 
chunk  of  yellowstone  from  Ohio,  a  small  slab 
of  black  slate,  and  a  block  of  white  marble,  — 
these  were  all  I  could  find  in  my  quarry.  Mrs. 
John  looked  at  them. 

"  My  dear,  I  was  mistaken.  It  would  be 
wrong  to  paint  the  wooden  part  of  our  house 


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Stone-color ;  it  would  be  deception.  It  should 
be  wood-color." 

Just  then  I  was  struck  by  an  inspiration.  It 
was  the  time  of  the  "  sere  and  yellow."  The 
ground  was  covered  knee-deep  with  leaves  of 
the  forest  in  numberless  shades  of  brown.  From 
the  pale  lemon  of  the  whitest  of  the  white  ma- 
ples, to  the  deep  maroon  of  the  darkest  oaks, 
there  was  every  conceivable  intermediate  tint. 
I  brought  in  leaves  enough  to  make  an  old- 
fashioned  feather-bed,  and  we  set  to  work  assort- 
ing the  colors.  We  began  immediately  after 
breakfast.  Before  candlelight  we  had  just  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  seventy-six  distinct 
shades,  hues,  and  tints,  all  of  them  strong,  clean, 
healthy,  natural  colors,  and  every  one  of  them 
brown.  We  felt  that  our  house  was  as  good 
as  painted,  and  that  night  we  slept  the  sleep 
of  the  just  and  the  unjust. 

Next  morning  a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing  en- 


BOW  JOHN'S  HOUSE  WAS  PAINTED.  265 


tered  our  peaceful  fold,  —  a  cloud  obscured  our 
sunny  sky,  —  an  east-wind  from  the  west  chilled 
our  budding  hopes.  The  schoolmaster's  wife 
called  upon  us.  She  announced  that  the  color 
of  a  house  ought  to  assimilate  with  that  of  the 
soil  on  which  it  stands.  The  body  should  re- 
semble the  earth  when  dry,  and  the  same  earth, 
wet,  would  give  the  proper  shade  for  the  trim- 
mings. We  were  deeply  impressed.  Like  all 
of  Sister  Jane's  observations,  this  seemed  based 
upon  philosophy,  science,  and  common-sense. 
We  took  a  dipper  of  water,  and  went  out  into 
the  middle  of  the  road.  The  neighbors  thought 
we  were  making  mud-pies.  Then  we  wet  one 
side  of  the  house  to  make  the  dry  dirt  stick,  and 
plastered  the  mud  on  to  the  corner  boards  with 
a  shingle.  We  retired  a  short  distance  to  catch 
the  effect ;  it  was  very  striking,  and  Sister  Jane 
went  home. 

Next  day  Mrs.  Fred,  who  spends  her  winters 


266 


HOME  IXTEKIORS. 


in  Boston,  came  over.  She  informed  us  that  our 
house  should  be  painted  a  cool  gray.  When 
anybody  says  "  cool  gray  "  to  me,  I 'm  speech- 
less.   French  gray  is  intelligent  and  very  stylish, 


but  "  cool  gray,"  with  a  remark  or  two  about 
"  pure  tone,"  strikes  me  dumb.  I  know  I 'm 
in  the  presence  of  a  superior  being.  I  think  I 
know  a  gray  horse,  in  the  daytime,  and  I  used 


HOW  JOHN'S  HOUSE  WAS  PAINTED.  267 


to  have  a  gray  hat  and  a  drab  overcoat,  but, 
of  course,  these  things  were  not  to  be  mentioned, 
so  I  kept  still 

After  our  visitor  had  gone,  we  reclined  upon 
the  anxious  seats  and  had  a  season  of  inquiry. 
I  asked  Mrs.  John  if  the  dabs  on  the  pine  board 
were  not  mostly  cool  grays.  "  John,"  said  she, 
"  this  time  I 've  been  inspired.  Take  the  mar- 
ket-basket and  pruning-knife,  and  bring  me, 
straight  from  out  the  forest,  branches  of  the 
beech  and  maple,  of  the  butternut  and  alder, 
chestnut,  hickory,  and  white  birch,  branches  of 
the  elm  and  sumac,  twigs  of  ash  and  wild  black 
cherry,  twigs  of  oak  and  thorn  and  poplar.  Lay 
these  branches  all  together ;  lay  them  side  by 
side  together.  At  the  right  hand  lay  the  white 
birch,  at  the  left  the  wild  black  cherry,  and  the 
other  shades  between  them." 

I  caught  the  brilliant  idea.  I  gathered  the 
sticks  with  the  bark  on.    I  laid  them  side  by 


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side  like  the  babes  in  the  wood.  Each  stick 
was  about  as  long  as  a  lead-pencil,  and  as  big 
round  as  a  pipestem.  They  made  a  corduroy 
road  in  miniature  the  whole  length  of  the  sit- 


ting-room. The  lightest  end  was  white  and  the 
darkest  was  almost  black.  We  never  counted 
the  shades  between,  but  they  were  all  gray. 

The  foregoing  facts  are  at  your  disposal.  I 
can't  send  you  the  total  result  on  paper.  You 
must  come  and  see  it. 

Yours, 

John. 


